This large, traditional "lavoir" – an open-air pool or basin set aside for clothes to be washed – is located on Île Grande and dates from the nineteenth century. Two sources supply it and can be seen at the foot of the retaining wall. At spring tide, it was filled with seawater, but, very quickly, the salt water was replaced with freshwater and washing could resume. Opposite the wash-pool is the Toëno peninsula, whose contours have changed significantly as a result of quarry mining. You can see the traces of this activity at the old quarry sites.
Be sure to visit the rural hamlet of Saint-Samson, a quiet spot in the country with a chapel, a menhir and a fountain. The chapel, constructed between 1575 and 1631, is a superb example of the...
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The guardhouse, TyGward in Breton, is an imposing block of granite which stands at the highest point of Île Grande. Right around the periphery of the island, grey and blue granite was mined for...
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The pink granite lighthouse stands in the middle of the chaotic rock formations formed by the erosion of cooled magma then shaped by the rain, salty sea spray and wind. Its name, "phare de Mean Ruz",...
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This church was built in several stages. The original building, dating back to between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, was modified several times over the centuries. In the seventeenth century,...
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