The Quiberon Peninsula: The Côte Sauvage and the 22-Metre Isthmus
Brittany, France
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Côte Sauvage Walker
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
The Quiberon Peninsula: The Côte Sauvage and the 22-Metre Isthmus
200 + 100 XP
The Quiberon peninsula, a rocky tongue running 14 km out to sea, was once an island and is tied to the mainland by a sandy tombolo; at the isthmus of Penthièvre it narrows to just 22 m. On its western side, facing the Atlantic swell, the Côte Sauvage is a mineral landscape of cliffs between the pointe de Beg en Aud and the pointe de Beg er Lan, a listed site run as a Grand Site de France since 2009, while to the east the bay of Quiberon forms sheltered water favoured by holidaymakers.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the Côte Sauvage between the pointe de Beg en Aud and the pointe de Beg er Lan, and on the rock platform at the foot of the cliffs look at how the granite splits: it is a two-mica leucogranite that deformed while it was still crystallising, so it comes apart in parallel sheets five millimetres to a centimetre thick
2
of 4
Stand on the isthmus of Penthièvre where it narrows to 22 m, with the Atlantic on one hand and the bay on the other, then find the memorial at the fort above it to the 59 members of the Resistance killed there between April and July 1944, fifty of them on one day that July
3
of 4
Walk the Grande Plage on the sheltered side of the bay to Port-Maria, and finish at one of the two sardine canneries still working on the peninsula, La Belle-Iloise or la Quiberonnaise, to buy a tin to take away
4
of 4
Compare the two sides of the same granite spine in one afternoon: the swell-battered west, then the quiet east, and look for the pale aplite and pegmatite veins cutting the rock west of the village of Kergroix and east of the Goviro beach at Quiberon
Walk the Côte Sauvage between the pointe de Beg en Aud and the pointe de Beg er Lan, and on the rock platform at the foot of the cliffs look at how the granite splits: it is a two-mica leucogranite that deformed while it was still crystallising, so it comes apart in parallel sheets five millimetres to a centimetre thick
Stand on the isthmus of Penthièvre where it narrows to 22 m, with the Atlantic on one hand and the bay on the other, then find the memorial at the fort above it to the 59 members of the Resistance killed there between April and July 1944, fifty of them on one day that July
Walk the Grande Plage on the sheltered side of the bay to Port-Maria, and finish at one of the two sardine canneries still working on the peninsula, La Belle-Iloise or la Quiberonnaise, to buy a tin to take away
Compare the two sides of the same granite spine in one afternoon: the swell-battered west, then the quiet east, and look for the pale aplite and pegmatite veins cutting the rock west of the village of Kergroix and east of the Goviro beach at Quiberon
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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