Bréhat (, ; ) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

and ''commune'' located near Paimpol, a mile off the northern coast of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. Administratively, it is a commune in the

Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor ( , ; ; , ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord until 1990 (, ), is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.department in northwestern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Bréhat is actually an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

composed of two main

s, separated only at high tide, and many smaller ones. It is famous for its pink

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

rocks, very mild micro-climate and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

vegetation, due to the warm

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...

coming from across the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. Many day-trippers come to Bréhat every day by the ferry service (les Vedettes de Bréhat) which sails from Pointe de l'Arcouest, to the north of Paimpol, taking about 10 minutes. They come to visit the main tourist attractions, the Paon and Rosedo lighthouses, the St-Michel chapel, the Guerzido beach, the Birlot rwater-mill and the Verrerie of Bréhat. In June 2023 the local municipality imposed a limit on the numbers of summer tourists, citing "

overtourism Overtourism is congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals. The World Tourism Organization defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influ ...

Climate

Bréhat features a temperate

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

with mild winters, dry summers and lower precipitation levels than continental Brittany as a result of the effects of the Gulf Stream, favoring a wide diversity of plants and flowers such as mimosas, hortensias, ceanothus, echiums and

agapanthus ''Agapanthus'' () is a genus of plants, the only one in the subfamily Agapanthoideae of the family Amaryllidaceae. The family is in the monocot order Asparagales. The name is derived . Some species of ''Agapanthus'' are commonly known as lily o ...

. It is one of the few places in Brittany and its surroundings where palm trees and other Mediterranean plants can grow naturally due to the scarcity of frosts throughout the year.

Population

Inhabitants of Île-de-Bréhat are called ''Bréhatins'' in French.

Sights

* Héaux de Bréhat Lighthouse *Rosedo Lighthouse *Chapelle Saint Michel *Paon Lighthouse *Chapelle Keranroux * Verrerie of Brehat Brehat Phare de la Croix 01.JPG, La Croix Lighthouse FR-22016 pharepaon01.jpg, Paon Lighthouse FR-22016 chapstmichel01.jpg, Chapelle St Michel Brehat Island harbour fisheye.jpg, Bréhat island's enclosed harbour, at high tide Keranouxchapel.jpg, Chapelle Keranoux Brehat - Chapelle Saint-Michel.jpg, St Michael's chapel

People linked to Île-de-Bréhat

* Pierre-Marie Le Bozec- Naval officer who lived and died here * André César Vermare (1869–1949), renowned sculptor who resided and died in the island *

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

(1887–1985), painted ''La fenêtre sur l'Ile de Bréhat'', 1924, kept at Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde. * Goudji (born 1941), the Georgian-born French sculptor and goldsmith, frequently resides in Bréhat; in 2008 he offered an item and participated in an auction to restore local religious monuments * Marie-José Chombart de Lauwe, resistance fighter.

References

External links