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Belle Ile en Mer
Updated 04.14.2006
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Belle Ile en Mer (the literal translation of the name is "beautiful island in the sea") is a wonderful little south Brittany island, 45 min of ferry away from the Quiberon peninsula. It's quite different from Ouessant and Sein, the climate is milder, and it's blessed by the Gulf Stream. I have taken wonderful sea baths in May (very cold water). The boarding harbor is Portmaria and there are several boats a day, depending on the season; check at mn-les-iles.com. You can ferry your car or you can rent a car in the island, also an electric one if you prefer. You will arrive at Le Palais, a little village castled around its harbor.
You can choose between the east coast, with a lot of wonderful beaches, and the wild west coast, with its magnificent cliffs, caverns and gullies and its ornithological reserve.
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Take a bath at the Arno beach, very quiet and sheltered in a little bay, and at the magnificent Donnan beach with its giant waves, a great place for surfing.
The only way to explore the magnificent wild west coast is to walk along the trail that follows all the coastline, at the top of the cliffs, it's a little exhausting but I can assure you that's really superb.
Don't forget that the weather change very fast in this part of the Atlantic coast and that the tides are very vigorous here, you can have a 10 mt gap from high and low tide.
I was at the Hotel Desirade at Bangor, phone 0297317070 fax 0297318963, very fine and quiet, with a heated swimming pool, near to the west coast. Here you can rent a car or a bike. A very good place.
An other interesting address is the Hotel Grand Large at Bangor phone 0297318092 fax 0297315874 with a wonderful location in front of the sea.
A great restaurant is Le Café de la cale at Sauzon, phone 0297316574. Try the local specialty "pieds du pouces" a sort of shellfish that you can eat only here, really interesting.
Don't go to the Goeland restaurant at Le Palais is really bad and expensive.
Try the island factory shop of local canned tuna in olive oil "Belle Iloise" at Le Palais, really different from the commercial one.
A very good link is the belle-ile-en-mer tourist office where you can find everything you need to plan your trip, including all the accommodations and the hotel addresses.
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photos by kind permission of Guido Baroni
Enjoy your stay. I'm just planning to return as soon as I can.
If you want to share your impressions and addresses E-Mail me.
After the shipwreck of the TotalFina oil tanker Erika in 1999, that severely polluted this paradise, saved only because of the spontaneous activation of thousands of volunteers, and the recent shipwreck of the Prestige in 2002, I think it is really time to stop this insane way of life that immolates our planet in the name of profit. I hope that the Net might be the start point of a strong reaction to force Oil Companies not to use old and unreliable ships and governments to ban older, single-hull vessels. The priority is for the ships flying "flags of convenience" or registered in countries with low safety, labor or tax rules. For more information take a look at the French press:
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E-Mail address
If you are searching for travel information and good addresses about these islands just click at the links below or go to Home where you will find a search engine to scan this site or the web for you. All the addresses and the suggestions made in these pages were personally tested.
Azores
(Açores) Sao Miguel,
Terceira, Fajal and Pico
Outer
Hebrides Lewis and
Harris
Shetland
in Northern Scotland
Ouessant and Sein Brittany, France
Belle Ile en Mer Brittany, France
Chausey Normandy, France
Porquerolles and Port Cros French Riviera
Texel a birds paradise in the Waddenland (The
Netherlands)
La Réunion
a tropical paradise in the Indian Ocean
Delta
del Po Park at leoccare.com
Have a good trip.
I'll be glade if you want to share with me your experiences about islands you visited and addresses you think worthy to be added.
Copyright Free-travel-guide.com
Last revised: 04.14.2006.
