Pays Bigouden: Surfing La Torche, the Eckmühl Lighthouse and the Guilvinec Trawlers
Brittany, France
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La Torche Surfer
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250
XP
+100 France
= 350 total
2 days
Pays Bigouden: Surfing La Torche, the Eckmühl Lighthouse and the Guilvinec Trawlers
250 + 100 XP
At the south-western corner of Brittany, the Pointe de la Torche was world-famous for windsurfing through the 1980s and 1990s and held the funboard World Cup in 1986; since the 2000s the surfers have taken it over. Round the headland the Eckmühl lighthouse of 1897 rises 65 m above the rocks of Penmarc'h, and Le Guilvinec — France's leading port for small-boat fishing by landed value, and the country's third fishing port behind Boulogne-sur-Mer and Lorient — brings its langoustines in on weekday afternoons.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Take a surf or bodyboard lesson at the Pointe de la Torche with one of its surf schools
2
of 4
Climb the Phare d'Eckmühl: 272 steps of kersanton stone up a spiral lined with white opaline tiles, then thirteen steeper ones to the hall of honour under the lantern, and come out on the granite balustrade for the view across the Audierne bay
3
of 4
From the panoramic terrace over the quay at Haliotika in Le Guilvinec, watch the coastal trawlers come in and unload the day's catch — langoustine, monkfish, ray, cod, whiting — then look down: the auction that sells it runs in the hall directly beneath your feet
4
of 4
Walk out to the tip of the Pointe de la Torche and find the Neolithic tumulus on the promontory above the Mesolithic shell midden, then watch the sandy banks in summer for European bee-eaters — this is the only place in Brittany where they nest
Take a surf or bodyboard lesson at the Pointe de la Torche with one of its surf schools
Climb the Phare d'Eckmühl: 272 steps of kersanton stone up a spiral lined with white opaline tiles, then thirteen steeper ones to the hall of honour under the lantern, and come out on the granite balustrade for the view across the Audierne bay
From the panoramic terrace over the quay at Haliotika in Le Guilvinec, watch the coastal trawlers come in and unload the day's catch — langoustine, monkfish, ray, cod, whiting — then look down: the auction that sells it runs in the hall directly beneath your feet
Walk out to the tip of the Pointe de la Torche and find the Neolithic tumulus on the promontory above the Mesolithic shell midden, then watch the sandy banks in summer for European bee-eaters — this is the only place in Brittany where they nest
Before you go
The Phare d'Eckmühl is open from April to mid-November, 10.30 to 18.30 in April, May, June and September and to 19.30 in July and August, with 40 people allowed up at a time; the outside walkway shuts in thunderstorms and when the wind passes 50 km/h. The coastal trawlers land Monday to Friday from about 4.30pm — nothing comes in at the weekend. In 2026 the lighthouse site is closed from 1 September to 30 October for military exercises.
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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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