Un jour maritime - le phare et la pêche

Today we head south towards Le Guilvenec and Pointe de Penmarc‘h, where at the end of the day we will have a night tour at the lighthouse of Eckmühl. Definitively one of the journey’s highlights, reservation was already made days before we started our trip.

Notre Dame de Tronoen with the oldest Glogatha

Before that we had a lot of time and spots to visit and explore with a first stop at the church Notre Dame de Tronoen. Which stands in the middle of nowhere close to the beach - impressive but not the main attraction. Instead it‘s the oldest Golgatha just standing beside of the church. Next stop was the lighthouse of Eckmühl to grab our tickets for the night tour and of course we wanted to climb the new and 2nd tallest lighthouse. So we queued as only 40 person are allowed at the same time. The lady at the entrance enlighted us, that the guided night tour will also climb the new and not the old lighthouse. So we made some folks behind us happy and left the site. Positive news we gained some time and enjoyed some delicious Crèpes/Galettes in the nice Crèperie just across the street at the corner before heading on to Le Guilvenec.

Not just convincing by style but also very tasty Crèpes

Le Guilvenec is the 3rd largest fishing harbour in Brittany, their auction hall is just beside the jetty and on top of it the Haliothika. A museum explaining very illustrative the fishing industry. We booked a guided tour for the auction together with the entrance. The „criée“ is everything else than noisy. In less than 2 hours the catch of the day from the fleet get sold. For the boys the arrival of the boats was pretty impressive and it‘s indeed quite emotional too, when the fleet returns more or less at the same time from a hard working day offshore.
Back in the museum the boys played their own arrival in the boatsman‘s stand replica and we enjoyed every moment until the doors got closed.

Bids are placed with a little remote switch or even via internet - the catch is sold in a dutch auction where the prize starts to drop from a maximum prize and the first bidder directly wins.

After clearance the trawlers moor in the harbour just to return offshore early next morning

Fresh from the sea the crustaceans is sometimes still alive …

This one not but a nice example of a langustine

Still 2,5 hours to go until the visit, so we drove to the Pointe de la Torche for the sunset picknick at the coast. Well at the most western point of CET timezone sunset is bit later than we had in mind during planing at home. The surfers at the beach did a good entertainment so time passed by within a glimp.

The guided night tour fully paid of the long day. The lighthouse construction as well it‘s story are mind blowing as the spectacular view topped with a wonderful sunset. What a memorable moment !

Noble and enduring materials where used to build the lighthouse (granite, opal, marble, brass)

Magic moment - enjoy the sunset on top of a lighthouse

View downwards into the yard and one of the lighthouse keepers house

The surrounding makes this place even more special

Last look up, the night tour with the sunset was an exceptional experience and another magical lighthouse moment

Frank Kraner23 July 2019