Port

Pont Aven

Name: Pont Aven
Address: Pont-Aven, FR
Telephone: +33298060035

3.4Pont-Aven, FranceMorbihan

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Maximum draught: 6 ft

Tidal basin in the town of Pont-Aven, about 4 NM up the Aven river from its mouth at Port Manec'h, in southern Finistère.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Enter the Aven from Port Manec'h, then 4 NM upriver on the well-buoyed red and green channel. Bar at the mouth, so approach on a rising tide and carry it right up, as the river dries between and offers no stop on the way. Draught up to 2 m at high water. The basin dries out completely, so the boat must take the ground; berthing along the tidal quay calls for some skill, and the visitor pontoon sits at an angle with a ledge at its foot to keep clear of. Not all berths have a ladder.

Practical

Around 20 places on buoys and alongside, at about 25 euros a night. There is no harbour office; the town hall team manages the moorings and is on the quay mainly in the mornings in season. Water and electricity at columns on the quay, and a small sanitary block. Fuel station in town. All shops, bakeries, banks and restaurants within 200 m of the quay. Tender needed to reach boats on buoys.

Ashore

Musée de Pont-Aven with permanent collections on the École de Pont-Aven painters at 150 m from the quay. Bois d'Amour footpath along the Aven at 300 m, walked by Gauguin and Sérusier. Chapelle de Trémalo at 1 km with the wooden Christ that inspired Gauguin's Yellow Christ of 1889.

History

Paul Gauguin stayed in Pont-Aven in 1886 and again from 1888 to 1890, working at the Pension Gloanec with Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier and other painters who formed the École de Pont-Aven. Sérusier painted Le Talisman in the Bois d'Amour in 1888, a foundational work of the Nabi movement.

Story

The local Traou Mad butter biscuit has been made in Pont-Aven since 1920 at the Biscuiterie Penven on rue du Général de Gaulle, a few minutes' walk from the quay.