BELLE-ILE

The largest of all the Breton islands (20 kilometres long and from 5 to 9 kilometres wide, pop. 10,000) Belle-Ile is spellbinding with its carved shale cliffs and creeks, dark rocks and deep caves, fine sandy beaches and gorse-lined moors. Claude Monet, charmed by the Côte Sauvage, set up his easel here. Vauban constructed fortifications, the actress Sarah Bernhardt enjoyed lengthy stays here in a fort resembling a stage set and which has since borne her name.

Here, according to an old seamens custom, the houses are cheerfully painted in bright colours with paint left over from painting boat hulls. In the north, Le Palais, the islands "capital" is capped by the Vauban citadel. In the west is the little pastel-coloured port of Sauzon, in the south the commune of Bangor with its big lighthouse which dominates the Côte Sauvage, and in the east, that of Locmaria the mysterious. The red pennants on the lobster pots stand out against the silvery glint of the waves, like the red spot on a herring gulls beak. The Conservatoire du Littoral [Coastal Conservation Centre] watches over the aptly named Belle-Ile, restores its heritage and protects its coasts from the ravages of the wind.