Pays des Abers: The Île Vierge Lighthouse, the Seaweed Harvesters and the Sainte-Marguerite Dunes
Brittany, France
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Île Vierge Keeper
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250
XP
+100 France
= 350 total
2 days
Pays des Abers: The Île Vierge Lighthouse, the Seaweed Harvesters and the Sainte-Marguerite Dunes
250 + 100 XP
On the north-west tip of Brittany the sea runs deep inland up the abers, the drowned river mouths. Plouguerneau has 45 km of coast, the longest of any commune in France, and is the capital of the goémoniers, who worked these weed beds for centuries and whose fleets reached their height between the 1870s and the 1930s, when seaweed cutters were close to half the working population. Off the town stands the Île Vierge lighthouse, built from 1897 to 1902 and at 82.5 m the tallest lighthouse in Europe and the tallest cut-stone lighthouse in the world.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Take the boat to the Île Vierge and climb all 397 steps of the lighthouse, 360 of them cut-stone treads cantilevered out of the wall and every one of them a different size, up a shaft lined with 12,500 azure-blue opaline plates from Saint-Gobain
2
of 4
At ALGAE in Plouguerneau, the centre that has taken over from the old écomusée des goémoniers, find out what the pigouliers cut and why, then go out on one of its low-tide walks on the foreshore and hold a frond of tali, the deep-water kelp whose brown thallus runs to several metres
3
of 4
Paddle a kayak out of the Aber Wrac'h past the 4-hectare île Stagadon, once the painter Bernard Buffet's and still carrying the seaweed-fishers' farm, and round the île Cézon to see the fort Vauban put there from 1685 to close the anchorage
4
of 4
Walk out along the Sainte-Marguerite peninsula at Landéda, between the Aber Wrac'h and the Aber Benoît, over the dunes where the Lilia seaweed cutters burned their harvest in soda kilns — 1,290 tonnes of soda came off this shore in 1861 alone — and look out to the islands of Guénioc and Tariec
Take the boat to the Île Vierge and climb all 397 steps of the lighthouse, 360 of them cut-stone treads cantilevered out of the wall and every one of them a different size, up a shaft lined with 12,500 azure-blue opaline plates from Saint-Gobain
At ALGAE in Plouguerneau, the centre that has taken over from the old écomusée des goémoniers, find out what the pigouliers cut and why, then go out on one of its low-tide walks on the foreshore and hold a frond of tali, the deep-water kelp whose brown thallus runs to several metres
Paddle a kayak out of the Aber Wrac'h past the 4-hectare île Stagadon, once the painter Bernard Buffet's and still carrying the seaweed-fishers' farm, and round the île Cézon to see the fort Vauban put there from 1685 to close the anchorage
Walk out along the Sainte-Marguerite peninsula at Landéda, between the Aber Wrac'h and the Aber Benoît, over the dunes where the Lilia seaweed cutters burned their harvest in soda kilns — 1,290 tonnes of soda came off this shore in 1861 alone — and look out to the islands of Guénioc and Tariec
Before you go
Boats go out to the Île Vierge lighthouse from April to October, depending on the tides.
Boats to the Île Vierge run roughly April to October and sail on the tide, so times move day to day and a swell can cancel them; the island can also be reached on foot, but only on the biggest spring tides. Motorhome parking on the Penn Enez tombolo road is banned in summer. Check the current season and hours at ALGAE before setting out; outside the main season it may open to booked groups only.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
250 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
350 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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