Belle Isle - Le Palais

Le Palais on Belle Isle was delightful. We were extremely pleased to get this far south in one hop. Nicky’s careful tidal calculations and the weather had worked out perfectly. We left L’Aber Benoit mid afternoon on 30 August butting the tide for a few hours but that meant that we arrived at the Raz de Sein exactly as planned at slack water. That was at dusk and with a good northerly wind we sailed through the night arriving at Belle Isle at midday on 31 August. We tied up with the bow attached to a chain on the harbour wall and a line from our stern to a buoy and settled down to enjoy the view.

The port is overlooked by the impressive fortifications of La Citadelle and has a pleasant air of holiday business and excitement about it. The cafés on the shore were lively; full of both people watching the world go by and animated conversations. From our vantage point on BV we were also ideally positioned to watch the activity.

The habour was fastideouly patrolled by the very helpful staff from the Captainerie. Their job was to help visiting yachts attach themselves to the moorings (which they did extremely well) and also to zip around the harbour in their RIB looking very cool and jolly important. No sitting down was allowed in their RIBs (not cool?), nor was travelling at anything other than full speed. It added a pleasant buzz to the place.

The other main activity was the regular arrival and departure of ferries. These were driven with the same zest as the capitainerie’s RIBs, arriving through the harbour entrance ‘at the rush’ before conducting the ferry driver’s equivalent of a handbrake turn to stop adjacent to the quay.  As we left we noted that at the entrance of the harbour was a large sign stating ‘limite de vitesse 2 noeudes’.  Clearly this did not apply to the ferries (note bow wave in picture)!

The arrival and departure of the ferries was clearly a big event with reception and farewell groups stationed by the lighthouse on the end of the harbour wall. Egged on by the boom of the ship’s foghorn, new arrivals were cheered and waved at. Departees were also waved at frantically as though setting off on an epic journey to the New World. There was never a dull moment.

Le Palais is well provided for with a couple of small supermarkets, poissoneries and 8 boulangeries (maybe more). Despite being very much a holiday town there was none of the holiday tat and ‘kiss-me-quick’ detritus that seems to clog up the equivalent location in the UK. All in all, it was a really nice lively place to spend a couple of days.