The Petit Minou Lighthouse () is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

in the

roadstead of Brest The roadstead of Brest (''rade de Brest'') is a roadstead or bay located in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. The surface area is about 180 km² (70 sq mi). The port of Brest and one of the two French naval ...

, standing in front of the Fort du Petit Minou, in the commune of

Plouzané Plouzané () is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. History The shores south of Plouzané are in a strategic location for the defense of the Goulet de Brest strait and were fortified by Sébastien Le Pr ...

. By aligning it with the

Phare du Portzic The Portzic Lighthouse (french: phare du Portzic) is situated on the north-eastern extremity of the Goulet de Brest (Finistère, France) and is the nearest lighthouse to the town of Brest, France, Brest. It is a tall octagonal tower. On the seaw ...

, it shows the safe route to follow for ships to enter the roadstead. It also has a red signal that indicates a dangerous sector around the plateau of les Fillettes (literally "the girls"), one of the submerged rocks in the

Goulet de Brest The Goulet de Brest is a 3-km-long strait linking the roadstead of Brest to the Atlantic Ocean. Only 1.8 km wide, the is situated between the Pointe du Petit Minou and the Pointe du Portzic to the north and the îlot des Capucins and the P ...

— sailors remember this by using the

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...

"Le Minou rougit quand il couvre les Fillettes" ("the Minou blushes when he covers the girls"). Built between 1694 and 1697, the Fort du Petit Minou was a fort built in the commune of Plouzané in France to defend the goulet de Brest. As part of the massive fortification campaign of France under the direction of the Marquis de Vauban, construction on the Fort du Petit Minou bastion was finished in 1697. Two hundred and forty cannons and a formidable moat helped protect a waterway leading to the military port town of Brest, on France's northwest coast. The waters offshore are notoriously treacherous, so in 1848, the Phare (lighthouse) du Petit Minou was added in front of the fort to aid navigation through the Goulet de Brest strait. It's one of dozens of lighthouses dotting the craggy, and infamously stormy, Brittany shores.

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* * * Lighthouses completed in 1848 Petit Minou Buildings and structures in Brest, France Tourist attractions in Finistère Round towers {{Europe-lighthouse-stub

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