Iles Chausey

Chausey lies about seventeen kilometres off Granville in a tidal range among the largest in Europe, which is why the standard description of it is a count that changes: at high water some fifty-odd islets show, and at low water the number quoted runs to several hundred as reefs and sandbanks emerge and the sea withdraws across the flats. Only the Grande Ile is inhabited, by a handful of people, with a lighthouse, a chapel and a fort. Granite from the archipelago was quarried for Mont-Saint-Michel and for buildings in Normandy and the Channel Islands. The waters are fished for lobster and scallop.

History

Normandy annexed the Channel Islands, Chausey among them, in 933, and in 1022 Duke Richard II gave Chausey to the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel, who built a priory on the Grande Île. Although it passed with the other islands to the English crown after 1066, Chausey, unlike its neighbours, has been French for centuries: it was run from Jersey until the early 16th century, when the Jerseymen abandoned it, and its maze of islets long sheltered pirates and smugglers. A fort built in 1559 and enlarged in 1740 was wrecked by the English in 1744, and another in 1756; Louis XV granted the archipelago to the Abbé Nolin in 1772, and Napoleon III had the present fort built from 1859 to 1866. The car maker Louis Renault bought and restored the fort between 1922 and 1924, and it became known as the Château Renault (Wikipedia, Chausey).

What you'll find

• The changing archipelago - islet numbers rising sharply as the tide drops.
• The Grande Ile - the only inhabited island, walked in a couple of hours.
• The old quarries - granite workings that supplied Mont-Saint-Michel.
• The clear shallows - sand and rock flats exposed at low water.

When to go

April to September; boats run seasonally and are weather-dependent. Sailings are set by the tide rather than the clock, and day trips can be short or long depending on it.

Things to know

Boat schedules follow tides, so the length of time ashore varies and is not always convenient. Facilities on the island are minimal, with one hotel and a bar. Crossings are cancelled in rough weather.

Nearby

Granville lies east; Jersey is northwest.

Key facts