Harbour

Port De Faou

Name: Port De Faou
Address: Le Faou, FR

3.8Le Faou, FranceNorth Finistère and Iroise

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Type: Harbour

Drying harbour at the head of the ria of Le Faou, in the inner rade de Brest, western Brittany.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Ria navigable on the last two hours of the flood and the first hour of the ebb. Dries at low water, soft mud bottom. Approach from the rade via the channel between Landevennec and Pointe de l'Armorique, then follow the marked river channel. Springs range of about 6 m. No VHF watch.

Practical

Moorings on buoys and alongside the quay, boats take the ground on soft mud at low water. Water tap on the quay. Town of Le Faou at the quay: boulangerie, butcher, small supermarket, restaurants. No fuel berth.

Ashore

Sixteenth-century slate-hung and half-timbered houses along the main street, classified as a Petite Cité de Caractère. Saint-Sauveur church from 1544 with its Renaissance belfry, 150 m from the quay. Forest of Cranou, a state-owned oak forest, starts 4 km east and offers waymarked paths towards the Monts d'Arree.

History

Le Faou was an active trading port from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, exporting oak from the Cranou forest to the naval arsenal of Brest for shipbuilding. The town kept its Renaissance core because it was spared by the bombings that destroyed most of the rade de Brest shoreline in 1944.