Belle-Ile-en-Mer

Belle-Ile is about eighty-four square kilometres, the largest Breton island, and it divides like Quiberon into a sheltered eastern side and a wild western one. Vauban rebuilt the citadel at Le Palais, which held prisoners into the twentieth century and is now partly a museum and hotel. The Aiguilles de Port-Coton, a line of rock needles off the western shore, were painted by Monet during a stay in 1886 that produced around forty canvases; the Grotte de l'Apothicairerie is a sea cave nearby. Sarah Bernhardt bought a fort on the island and spent summers there for thirty years.

History

Belle-Île was cut off from the mainland about 6000 BC, earlier than its neighbours Houat and Hœdic; Bronze Age finds point to a sharp rise in population, and it later served as a naval base for the Veneti. Its Roman name seems to have been Vindilis, which became Guedel in the Middle Ages, and in the 9th century it belonged to the county of Cornouaille. In 1572 the monks of Sainte-Croix at Quimperlé ceded the island to the Retz family, who were made marquesses of it the next year; it later passed to the Fouquet family, was fortified, and was ceded to the crown in 1718. British troops held it from 1761 to 1763, when it was returned to France in exchange for Menorca, and as half the population had left for the mainland, the empty lands were given to Acadians expelled from North America, who settled here in 1766 (Wikipedia, Belle Île).

The landscape

• The Aiguilles de Port-Coton - rock needles Monet painted in 1886.
• The Vauban citadel - the fortress above Le Palais harbour.
• The Cote Sauvage - the exposed western coast of cliffs and caves.
• Sarah Bernhardt's fort - the actress's summer house on the island.

When to go

May to September; ferries run year-round but reduce in winter and cancel in rough weather. August is very busy and vehicle space on ferries books out well ahead.

Good to know

Taking a car across requires booking far in advance and is expensive; many visitors hire bicycles or scooters instead. Ferries cancel in bad weather. Accommodation in August is scarce and costly.

Nearby

Quiberon lies northeast; Houat and Hoedic are east.

Key facts