Les Aiguilles de Port Coton

The wild coast of the impressionists A visit to this advanced point allows you to discover the sinuosity of the coast, islets and rocks of all shapes, including the needles of Port Coton. Their name comes from the whipped foam which, in heavy weather, forms large, cotton-like, foamy flakes. The painter Claude Monet, who lived in Kervilahouen, a stone's throw away, revealed in a few famous paintings the beauty of these jagged rocks. He was originally to stay just two weeks on the island, fascinated by the beauty of the landscapes, he will stay two months. As an impressionist, he works in nature, facing the ocean, undergoing the onslaught of the wind and the sea. The colors are difficult to render on the canvas, the blues and greens contrast with the tones that are familiar to him. He painted the storm with a broad, edgy touch that would shock critics when he exhibited the following year. He made 39 paintings of the wild coast with three privileged sites: Port Coton (the pyramids and the Lion Rock), Port Domois and the Port of Goulphar. The Grand Phare and its mist siren Not far from the needles, the small white building, located on the cliff, housed the mist siren of Belle-île. Operated from the "Grand Phare", thanks to an electrical connection and a compressed air pipe buried one meter deep, it warned sailors, in bad weather, of the proximity of the cliffs. In 1935, two walls were added to the construction to extend the range of sound. They have now disappeared. Several blockhouses are still well preserved in this sector, they date from the German occupation. A rare ecosystem The site is home to a rare and protected ecosystem. Short heathers with wandering heather are a unique plant association in Europe: wandering heather, ciliated and ashy, mix with maritime gorse whose yellow flowers smell of coconut. It is a very rare environment and Belle-Île concentrates 80% of the European surfaces of this ecosystem.

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