The media library gives its walls to Benoît Stichelbaut, who has photographed the sea for thirty years from his base in Concarneau. The prints follow the coast he knows best: the lighthouses of the Iroise Sea, the islands of the Ponant, small hidden harbours and the yards where boats are built. His racing work runs alongside them, from the great transatlantic starts to the skippers he has followed. The series is Brittany read from the water.
Tag: maritime-culture
Visite des huîtres Le Cha on the Aber-Wrac’h
Hollow oysters raised in the Baie des Anges, beside the port of the Aber-Wrac’h, are the subject of this visit to the Le Cha oyster yard. The tour sets out how those cupped oysters are brought on, and a tasting follows on site. The farm also keeps a shop for oysters to take away, an oyster bar and a vending machine. It runs within the Economic Tourism and Craftsmanship Weeks, with the takings from the tickets going to the Brittany Heritage Foundation.
Aber Wrac’h Odyssée: La Route des Phares
Four lighthouses of the Aber Wrac’h archipelago set the route: the two towers of the Île Vierge, the light of the Île Wrac’h and the Lanvaon tower. Hervé skippers the boat, grandson of a semaphorist at Aber Wrac’h and from a family of Plouguerneau boat builders. He explains how lighthouses and coastal buoyage work, and carries the memory of shipwrecks and shipwreckers. The run passes the Wrac’h, Stagadon and Vierge islands close to the water.
Ormeaux bretons at the France Haliotis sea farm
France Haliotis rears Breton ormeaux in open water at Aod Kerazan Vihan, on the Aber Wrac’h in northern Finistère. The farmers walk visitors through their trade, from the beds held out in the sea to the work done back on shore. The stock eats nothing but algues cut by hand along this same coast, and the holding stands as the only abalone farm of its kind in France. A booking is required, because the small team leads each round itself.
Des écailles, des carapaces & des hommes
The Musée de la Conserverie Le Gall turns its temporary exhibition to the world of fishing through five species: sardine, thon, maquereau, langouste and langoustine. Collections gathered with the Musée de la pêche de Concarneau trace how techniques changed and what comes next. The route runs outdoors, to the port de pêche and the théâtre de verdure. Conférences follow the species one by one, among them la langoustine, l’or rose du Pays bigouden.
Dawn in the Criée at Saint-Quay-Portrieux
Fifteen participants at most follow the fish through the criée at Saint-Quay-Portrieux, from the unloading and the sorting of the catch to the auction hall and the loading of the trucks, before things settle down for breakfast at the harbour. A lab coat and shoe covers come with the booking, and the visit is open from twelve years up. It is one session of the fifth Les Minutes Bleues, which opens heritage sites of the Côtes-d’Armor in blue light.
Café-criée : les coulisses de la criée de Concarneau
Concarneau’s criée works in the early morning, as the catch is graded and sold on the floor. Visitors follow the rouages of the sale, then sit down to a breakfast with the guide-conférencier of the town’s Patrimoine service. Talk turns to testimonies collected from the men who worked the hall, to fishing techniques, and to how the whole filière has changed. The auction is the emblematic site of fishing in Concarneau.
Nitray: The Wooden Needles That Keep the Cher Navigable
Wooden aiguilles stand side by side in the Cher’s needle dams, regulating water for navigation. At Nitray, Les Amis du Cher canalisé present an exhibition alongside subscriptions and the marking of sponsored needles. These pieces are passed to the river authority for use in the dams, making a small act of support part of the continuing care of this working river heritage.
L’Estran: A Seaweed Boat’s Restoration
L’Estran, a former seaweed-harvesting vessel, is the subject of a restoration-site visit at Douarnenez’s Port-musée. The boat was built at the Tanguy shipyard for a working life on the Breton coast. Its career took it to Audierne and the waters around the island of Sein, before it eventually ceased operations.
Terre-Neuve, Canada: Des histoires de fierté
Lynda Paquette and Martin Parent explore Newfoundland through encounters with fishermen, artists, writers and keepers of local traditions. Their documentary follows the island’s layered history, including Basque and Breton fishing connections. Music, cod fishing and marine wildlife sit alongside the experiences of the people they meet.