Granville is one of those harbours you come to for one place and stay for another. The one place is Chausey, the scatter of granite islands and drying rocks that lies just nine nautical miles offshore, and Granville is the natural launchpad for it. But the town itself, perched on its headland with the old walled upper town looking out over the bay, turns out to be worth a couple of nights in its own right.
What you have to get right at Granville is the sill. This is a tidal harbour with a flap gate, and the marina, Port de Hérel, is only accessible for part of the tide. Plan that well and the rest is easy.
The sill: the one thing to plan
Granville sits at the head of one of the biggest tidal ranges in Europe, the same bay that feeds the Mont Saint-Michel. The marina is protected by a flap gate on a sill, and the gate opens when there is about 6 metres of tide above chart datum, at which point you cross the sill in roughly a metre of water depth.
In practice that gives you a window of around three hours either side of high water, so roughly HW minus 3 to HW plus 3. Outside that window the gate is up and you wait. So the planning is the same discipline you use anywhere on this coast: work out high water Granville, check the coefficient, and arrange your arrival inside the window with enough rise of tide for your draft.
A word of caution from recent seasons. There has been work on the main dyke, and the tide gauges that show the water level at the sill were dismantled during that work. That means you cannot always rely on reading a gauge as you arrive, so calculate your timing from the tide tables and your own draft rather than trusting that a marker will be there. If you are coming from a tideless background, the crash course on Atlantic tides is worth a read before you tackle a sill harbour with this kind of range.
Calling in and berthing
As you approach, call the marina on VHF channel 9, or the harbourmaster on VHF 12 for movements. Port de Hérel is a big marina, around 1,000 berths with roughly 150 kept for visitors, so there is usually space even in season. The visitor berths run along the pontoon by the G pile; the staff will point you in.
Tell them your length and draft on the radio. Water and electricity are on the pontoons, fuel is available, and the showers and facilities are what you would expect of a marina this size. For the current overnight tariff, look at the Port de Hérel guide directly, as the figures are revised yearly. A 10 to 12 metre yacht in high season sits in the normal Normandy band. If you are budgeting a cruise, the cost of a French marina per night in 2026 gives a realistic baseline.
The walk up into the old walled town, the Haute Ville, is the thing to do with an evening. The ramparts, the views back over the bay toward Chausey, and the working fishing port below make Granville feel like a proper Norman seaport rather than a holiday marina.
Granville is a serious fishing town, one of the leading ports in France for shellfish, and that shows up on your plate. The market and the restaurants near the harbour run on what the boats land that morning, so the oysters, mussels and whelks are about as fresh as they come. There is provisioning enough for a long stay, a good chandlery, and the town has the air of somewhere that works for a living rather than just for the season.
Reading the range before you commit
It is worth dwelling on the tide a moment more, because the bay around Granville and Mont Saint-Michel has one of the largest ranges in Europe, regularly more than 12 metres on big springs. That range is what makes the sill work, and it is also what makes the whole bay a place to treat with respect. The water comes in fast over the flats, the streams run hard, and a miscalculation here has bigger consequences than it would on a coast with a modest range.
The practical upshot is simple. Always check the coefficient before you plan a movement, not just the height of high water. A high coefficient means a deep sill window but ferocious streams; a low one means a gentler tide but possibly not enough water over the sill for your draft at all. Work it through before you leave your previous port, and keep a margin under the keel. If the arithmetic of these tides is unfamiliar, the crash course on Atlantic tides is the place to start, and it is genuinely worth getting comfortable with before you cruise this corner of the Channel.
The crossing to Chausey
Now the reason you came. Chausey lies about nine nautical miles west of Granville, and on a settled day it is a straightforward sail or motor across. The archipelago belongs to Granville, administered as the town's island district, and at low water springs it reveals an astonishing maze of rocks and sand, one of the largest such fields in Europe.
The crossing itself is simple in good visibility, but Chausey is rock-strewn and the tidal streams in the bay are strong, so this is not a place to arrive casually. Time your approach with care, use the marked channels into the Sound, and pick up a visitor mooring rather than trying to anchor among the rocks unless you really know the ground. In poor visibility, do not go. Like much of this coast, Chausey is unforgiving of guesswork, and knowing what to do if fog catches you mid-Channel applies just as much to a nine-mile bay crossing as to the open Channel.
The reward is one of the finest anchorages and island groups in northern France: clear water over white sand, a single small hotel, a tiny chapel, and walking that makes you forget the boat for a few hours. Many people make Chausey a day trip and come back to Granville for the night, which works well if you have timed the sill, because you arrive back inside the same evening's tidal window.
Granville as a hub
Beyond Chausey, Granville sits in a strong cruising position. To the north lie the Norman ports and the route toward Cherbourg, and to the west the Channel Islands are within an easy day. Jersey in particular is close, which means Granville fits neatly into a circuit that takes in the Channel Islands and the run down to Saint-Malo, with Chausey as the jewel in the middle.
A few things to keep in your plan:
- Granville to Chausey is about 9 nautical miles, a half-day return in settled weather.
- The marina sill opens roughly HW minus 3 to HW plus 3; calculate, do not assume a gauge.
- Big tidal range and strong streams in the bay; mind the coefficient.
- Visitor berths at Port de Hérel are plentiful, around 150 of about 1,000 total.
If you are stringing together a Normandy cruise, Granville earns its place as both a destination and a gateway. Tie it into the wider plan with the help of the guide to arriving in Cherbourg from England and you have the bones of a fine cross-Channel itinerary, with the islands of Chausey as the part everyone remembers.
