Concarneau: The Ville Close, the Fishing Museum and the Oldest Marine Station
Brittany, France
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Ville Close Trawlerman
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275
XP
+100 France
= 375 total
2 days
Concarneau: The Ville Close, the Fishing Museum and the Oldest Marine Station
275 + 100 XP
Concarneau's Ville Close is a walled town on an island in the middle of a working fishing harbour, its ramparts dating from the 14th century, and the fishing museum in its old arsenal keeps a trawler of 1957 afloat at the quay. On the quay across the water, the marine station Victor Coste founded in 1859 is the oldest in the world still at work.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the rampart walk round the Ville Close, find the Tour du Fer a Cheval where the 13th-century tower base and 14th-century wall of the medieval enceinte were dug up, and remember the walls were only saved from being sold off and listed in 1899 because the painters who worked here got up a petition
2
of 4
Visit the Musee de la Peche in the Ville Close's old arsenal and its Rosaire chapel wing, then go aboard the Hemerica alongside the ramparts, a side trawler built at Saint-Nazaire in 1957 as the Pactole, renamed at Concarneau in 1971 and fishing the north Atlantic until 1981; work your way from the fish hold to the bridge
3
of 4
Visit the Marinarium, the public face of the marine station the embryologist Victor Coste founded here in 1859, the oldest still working anywhere, and find the live tanks of animals caught in the bay of Concarneau that week
4
of 4
Walk the coast path round the Pointe du Cabellou across the harbour mouth, out to the German lookout post at Kerviniou at the neck of the peninsula, the last position the occupiers left on 24 August 1944, and look back across the water to the ramparts
Walk the rampart walk round the Ville Close, find the Tour du Fer a Cheval where the 13th-century tower base and 14th-century wall of the medieval enceinte were dug up, and remember the walls were only saved from being sold off and listed in 1899 because the painters who worked here got up a petition
Visit the Musee de la Peche in the Ville Close's old arsenal and its Rosaire chapel wing, then go aboard the Hemerica alongside the ramparts, a side trawler built at Saint-Nazaire in 1957 as the Pactole, renamed at Concarneau in 1971 and fishing the north Atlantic until 1981; work your way from the fish hold to the bridge
Visit the Marinarium, the public face of the marine station the embryologist Victor Coste founded here in 1859, the oldest still working anywhere, and find the live tanks of animals caught in the bay of Concarneau that week
Walk the coast path round the Pointe du Cabellou across the harbour mouth, out to the German lookout post at Kerviniou at the neck of the peninsula, the last position the occupiers left on 24 August 1944, and look back across the water to the ramparts
Before you go
The Marinarium closes on Tuesdays and between 12 and 2, with last entry 45 minutes before closing - do it either side of lunch, not at it.
The Ville Close is a pedestrian island with no parking inside; use the harbour car parks and walk over the bridge. In July and August the one street through it is shoulder to shoulder.
The sea washed into the Ville Close through the Porte aux Vins in the October 2023 storm; the rampart walk can be shut in heavy weather and on high spring tides.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
275 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
375 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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