Groix - Circuit 2 Locmaria Les Chats

For a long time, isolated in the middle of nature, this chapel was a symbolic place of worship for fishermen. A huge service was celebrated here at the end of June for the departure of tuna fishing season. During the Revolution, the chapel was used as a barracks, and then became the island’s first boys’ school in 1827. Completely rebuilt in the shape of a Latin cross in 1894, it sits apart from other chapels with its neo-gothic style.

In the 12th century, only the eastern part of the island was inhabited (Locmaria, Lomener, Loctudy), known as the “Primiture”. Little by little, families were sent to cultivate the rest of the island, to the west or “Piwisy”. A document from 1388 details the new farms that eventually became villages: Kerlard, Kervedan, KerampouloIt is said that people in Piwisi spoke “gravelec”, a more rustic language. In Primiture, for a long time under ecclesiastical tutelage, people spoke in a more sophisticated way. Elder Groix inhabitants say, “I've known a few boys from the other side who only spoke French, polluted with Breton words. In the eyes of the village children, they were considered backward.”Life is also easier on the east side of the island, with its plentiful ports and coves, and it grew with the Locmaria fisheries in the 13th century, followed by the Port-Tudy sardine press in 1670. The west was only developed later with tarmac roads and electricity.So, the idea of two societies took root: one more peasant and rural in Piwisi, the other more maritime and wealthier in Primiture. But men were sailors in both Primiture and Piwisi. And women worked the land wherever they were.

This village has been rebuilt over the years. After the Revolution, it comprised around twenty small houses, with a stable on the side, characteristic of the island’s houses. The roof frames were made of elm, the only trees to once grow on the island.

On the island, there are about thirty fountains and washhouses. Here, Kermouzouet fountain was renovated and a washhouse added at the end of the 19th century. It is also called Saint-Armand’s fountain, from the name of the chapel destroyed at the end of the 18th century. Its waters were known to treat animals, but also headaches. The legend tells that you had to draw the water at midday after it had been heated by the sun. There used to be several healing fountains on the island.

Despite its jetty built in 1902, Locmaria has never been a port of refuge like Port Tudy. The bay is too exposed to the wild, prevailing winter winds. Nearby can be seen traces of medieval fishing dykes, used to capture the fish.  The beach is a delight for everyone, in all seasons! In the tidal area, between the rocks, hides a rich variety of marine fauna. What fun to watch anemones, barnacles and other molluscs and catch crabs, starfish and sea urchins!

Until the 20th century, Locmaria was the most populated village on the island. When you leave the beach, head up into the streets with flower-decked houses to reach the large washhouse and imposing chapel of Notre-Dame de Plasmadec. It was burnt down by English invaders in 1696, restored in 1734 and rebuilt with local schist around thirty years later. It was in this village that the only Viking burial boat in southern Europe was discovered in 1906.

There are many Neolithic ruins on Groix, testimony to human presence 6,000 years before Jesus Christ. Locmaria dolmen, listed in 1966, still has its two burial chamber floors. On one of them, you can faintly see an engraved monk, made last century by Jean Tonnerre, a painter from Locmaria.

Groix is the only mineralogical reserve in France due to the diversity and especially the rarity of some of its minerals. There is no granite on the island! With a surface area measuring 99 hectares, it was created in 1982 and contains two sectors. The south-eastern part, from the Pointe des Chats to Loqueltas, is devoted to geology and the protection of rocks and minerals. The western part, from Pen Men to Beg Melen is a reserve to protect colonies of nesting seabirds. The reserve also aims at managing and preserving the maritime moors and heaths.

Groix is a Natura 2000 site and contains a wealth of biodiversity. 571 species of flowering plants and 240 varieties of lichen have been identified here. Dunes, seaside moorland and cliffs are home to many plants, like the very rare wandering heath. These plants have learned to adapt to resist the strong winds, salty mists and summer droughts. They attract butterflies, spiders, snails, reptiles and amphibians.

This lighthouse was built in 1898, on a former 18th century defence battery. Fifteen metres high, every night it warns sailors of the danger with a red light that flashes every 5 seconds. It has a range of about 19 nautical miles (35km). The lighthouse was built in a particularly dangerous spot for navigation, due to the rocky outcrop that extends into the sea; there have been many shipwrecks here.

At low tide, you can discover the huge diversity of seaweed around the island. These plants, red, green and brown in colour, vary according to their position; you can find wrack, sea lettuce, pepper dulse and thongweed in the upper foreshore, and kelp and dulses in the lower foreshore. Today, this seaweed is used in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and harvesting is regulated. Brittany produces 250 tonnes of it per year.

With its diverse landscapes, Groix is an ideal place for discovering domestic and passing seasonal birds. At the shoreline, you will see sand martins, common shelduck, wading birds such as the sanderling feeding in the mud, and seabirds such as gulls and cormorants.

Located at the foot of the Sémaphore de la Croix, this beach fully covered during very high tides, is famous for its garnet colour, which comes from an accumulation of this mineral powder that gives it such a special aspect. This gave Groix its nickname of “Garnet Island”.

Strategic in the defence of the bay of Lorient, the island of Groix was the target of Anglo-Dutch attacks in the 17th and 18th centuries, after the setting up of the French East India Company and the birth of the town of Lorient. Several defensive structures were built, including Surville, the largest. Built in 1744, this fort has undergone many transformations. Depending on the time, it was used as a lighthouse, semaphore and a prison during the two World Wars. It is private and not open to visits.

By taking the coastal path around the fort, you discover the Phare de la Croix. Only four metres high, it is the smallest lighthouse in France. It was automated on its creation in 1898.

The Plage des Grands Sables is one of the rare convex beaches in Europe. Every time there is a storm or a very high tide, it changes colour and aspect. But it is the only wandering beach! Since winter 1983, it has been gradually moving northwards. Following the 1987 hurricane and the winter of 1990, it is now just north of the Pointe de la Croix. All in all, the beach travelled 450 metres from 1881 to 2004.

Hidden in the greenery, the covered walkway of Kerrohet, dating back to the 3rd millennium BC, was 12 metres long. Its paved one metre wide corridor still has a part of its cairn. Two covering slabs are also still in place. There are five menhirs and about twenty dolmens on the island of Groix, including the one at Kerrohet and the neighbouring one at Port-Mélite dating back to the 5th millennium BC. They were positioned on a height. They were excavated at the start of the 20th century, but the tombs which had been raided many years previously, provide little information about their date of origin or the dead buried there.

While most men were sailors in those days, women cultivated the land. Following the 1950 land reforms, the island changed landscape but here and there, some remains of its surprising land allocation can still be seen. At the time, the unit of land was the “furlong” (sillon in French), comprised of a long strip of curved land, 3 to 4 metres wide, and measuring around one hundred square metres.  The furlongs were grouped by crop, mainly wheat, barley, oats and potatoes.

With its covered market and shops, the town merits a wander through its coloured streets.  The parish church, devoted to the Breton saint Tudy, dates from the 17th century and was considerably renovated in around 1850. The top of the bell tower sports a tuna-shaped wind vane, marking the influence of tuna fishing on the island. Numerous ex-votos, in the form of suspended model tunnyboats, are also exhibited. The war memorial with its navy fusilier and 174 names engraved on it is a reminder of the heavy price paid by the islanders in the Great War.