This time, I started from Paris by renting a car and driving to Brest, about a 6 hour drive. I got a diesel Puegeot 407 from Thrifty Rentacar, who has a co-marketing arrangement with ADA in France. I did shop around looking for the best deal, and Thrifty was about 1/2 the cost of Europcar, which is who I used in 2002. The Puegeot was comfy, air conditioned, and had enough pep to keep up on the Motorways. An added bonus is that diesel fuel is a bit cheaper, and the car had better than a 1000km range on a full tank.
The trip spanned the Bastille day holiday (July 14). This was good, but bad on the last day (Sunday, 17th). It was good because many things were open for tourism. It was bad because I had to return to Paris on Sunday, and it turned out that over half of Paris had taken the 15th off to gain a four-day weekend. It was a bad oversight on my part. Sunday evening I drove from Caen to Paris, about 225km. At 120km/hr it should have taken around 2 hours. Instead it took more like 6 hours. Every road leading to Paris was stop and go jammed. The A motorways, the N departmental roads; everyone was trying to do the same thing: get home. A familiar sight was a car inching along in the jam with the driver scanning a road atlas looking for a better route.
A lucky break, found via the Mayor of Ouessant's website, led me to Finist-Mer's website where I discovered a water tour, Les Sentinelles de Lumiere of the lighthouses surrounding Ouessant. This tour turned out to be the highlight of the trip.
The route through town is twisty-turney and confusing even if you read French. I can't imagine trying to negotiate this while playing beat-the-clock against the boat's departure time. The parking lot is a good deal, even if it costs money.
From Le Minou, I headed north, to see Trezien, Le Four, and I'lle Vierge. The weather on the coast was hazy, and my pictures reflect that, Photoshop notwithstanding. Trezien, located near the town of the same name, is located inland in what looks like a residential area. Signs led the way and when I got there, the gates were open. The admission fee was 2-euros per person. 182 steps lead to the top and then I were there. This light does not have the familiar rotating beacon, it is a point source that always points to the same bearing. It makes an alignment with one of the other coastal lighthouses.
From Trezien, I went back to the D28 road up to the town of Argenton and then to Porspoder. Following the signs to the Porte led to a vantage point with a clear view of the Le Four lighthouse. Next, to the town of Lilia to see Phare de I'le Vierge. I stopped en route at the town of Portsall. The town is built around a shallow bay, and when the tide is out, any boats in the bay are left aground. There is another lighthouse, Corn Carhai located out amongst the rocks and I was able to photograph it.
On our way again on the D168 to Ploudalmézeau, then back to D28 to Lannilis, then to Plouguerneau, then east to Lilia via D71. Again, following the signs to the Porte, I found a spot where I could photograph the lighthouse.
If you look at a map of Brittany, you'll see a large number of towns having similar names: Ploudalmézal, Plouarzel, Plourim, Plougernau, Ploudaniel, etc. The prefix Plou is Breton for 'parish.' The prefix Plo also means parish. For example, the meaning of the word "Ploudalmézeau", which derives from the Breton Gwitalmézé, could be expressed as follows: a "territory or parish in front of plains":
plou - parish,
dal - in front of,
mezon - plain or countryside.
That evening, in Brest, I had dinner at Au Bureau, on Rue de Siam. I got a huge bowl of mussels and frites for about 9 euros. The waitress was the spitting image of Meg Ryan. Yum!
I arrived at the island about an hour later. The boat docks at the same location as the ferries from Penn-Ar-Bed, so you are presented with the same assortment of Busses, Taxis, and Bicycle rentals. Having learned my lesson about bicycles in 2002, I (wisely) chose one of the busses. I bought my return ticket at the same time, which earned me a small discount. The busses run to the town of Lampaul, the major population center on the island.
At Lampaul, I inquired at the information center about hiring cars, etc. Cars can be rented, given sufficient notice. Motos (cycles, scooters, etc.) are not available. I had previously inquired about the possibility of hiring a taxi with an english speaking driver, but the cost was prohibitive. It may have been that the date I inquired about was a holiday, and the taxi company never replied back when I parried their price.
I resolved to walk to my destinations. It was now about 10am, and I had until 1:30pm to kill. I headed off towards the nearest point of land to La Jument, about 3km. There are good views of the lighthouse from land, and a short walk gets good views of Nividic and its two support pylons. There are other, perhaps better, views of Nividic from the Pointe de Pern, but that means going back through Lampaul, and then west again. I didn't have time to do this. By the time I got back to Lampaul, there was enough time to locate where the boat tour left from and to get on.
From Lampaul, we went west, around the Pointe de Pern, stopping near Nividic for pictures, then back east towards Créach. We made a clockwise circuit of the island, and the boat got close enough to each light for people with simple cameras to get satisfactory pictures. I chose my 70-200mm zoom, which gave me the flexibility to get a full-frame shot of the lighthouse or to focus in on some detail. This was great until we got to La Jument, where I waited too long and by the time I was able to take my shots, we were too close for this lens. I settled on capturing details on the light such as the door, and the dome itself. As we left, I was able to get a full-frame picture of the lighthouse, although it was not necessarily the angle that I would have preferred.
This short (1.5hrs) trip turned out to be the highlight of my journey, perhaps surpassing climbing Ste. Mathieu and Trezien. I wasn't sure that I'd ever be able to take my own photographs of these lighthouses from anything but shore and I did. We got up close and personal. The haze didn't matter. It appears that this excursion has happened before. They also plan on doing it on the 17th and 25th of August 2005. If you miss this one, then here is their website.
n.b. 2009 update: I checked Finist-Mer's site again and found that they are repeating the tour. Here is the page related to the tour: Excursion Dans Larchipel de Molene.
At some point in the future, I intend to return, during the winter, to attempt to photograph the lights during a winter storm. My plan is to spend at least a night at one of the hotels on the island.