Pointe du Van - Pointe du Raz by foot

The Pointe du Raz, known as the most western French promontory into the Atlantic Ocean, is named after the dangerous and fast currents between it and the Isle of Sein. It is the most touristic place in Brittany, reputed for the dramatic scenery of wind and huge waves.

I chose to park the car (for free) at another promontory, the Pointe du Van, considered as the « little sister ». It is less famous, so there is less people and it is more wild.

There, I got angry. All the sites (both of the promontories) has been changed few years ago: at the Pointe du Raz, they destroyed the touristic buildings to put them further away, the site is only accessible by non-polluant buses or by foot, and all along the paths had delimitations in order to preserve the nature there, to help it to grow again so the sites will be more natural again. Despite the explanations and even if there were several paths leading to the interesting places, some persons were still going beyond the limits and walking on the flora trying to rebirth. I think it is something between disrespect and recklessness, as most of them appreciated the colours the nature there offers...

A lot of purple and yellow, some blue, few red. .. All these colours give a real charm to the winding coast path, with a magnificient view of rocks fighting with the sea and, further, the Pointe du Raz and its lighthouse, la Vieille.

The hiking path, GR 34 (the path going all along the coasts of Brittany), goes all along the coast, on the top of the cliffs, sometimes up to 60m above the sea. Good shoes are definitly needed!

After around 1 hour of walking not fast, I arrived at the Baie des Trépassés (meaning something like « Bay of the Deads »). There were many surfers there, enjoying the nice waves. I carried on the hiking path to reach the Pointe du Raz. I was quite exhausted when I arrived there after another hour of going up on the cliffs. But it is worth it, I think the walk along the path is as beautiful as the promontories finally!

The Pointe du Raz was more crowded as it is expected, but it was not so bad. I was quite disappointed about the weather: the scenery was not at its best day. Unfortunatly, and it might be the only place I could say that for, I would have liked a dark sky and a lot of wind. But the sea was very calm and it took away a lot of the atmosphere that should have been there. Anyway, the view is still nice, but it was not as impressive as the weather can make it...

As I said, the touristic buildings are now further from the site, around 10 minutes by foot. There are buses for free. As the buses are only running from 1PM to 6PM, it might be better to reach the promontory out of this hours to have less people there.
I watched a short documentary about the area, for free again.

Someone was picking me up at the car park (not as brave as me to walk ^^), it cost 6€! But if it can help for preserving the nature, I can't complain, I love it so much!!