Plage de Morgat

Plage de Morgat is the sheltered sand beach of Morgat, a village in the commune of Crozon on the Bay of Douarnenez in Finistère, Brittany. It curves round a cove protected from the open Atlantic, with the marina at one end and the Morgat sea caves in the cliffs beyond, and suits families who want calm water and anyone planning a boat trip to the caves.

Calm, south-east facing water on the Crozon Peninsula

Because the cove faces south-east into the bay, the water is calmer here than on the west-facing beaches of the Crozon Peninsula, which makes Morgat one of the gentler places to swim on this coast. The harbour end is sandy and kinder underfoot; toward the east the sand gives way to pebbles. The water stays cool even in August. Cafés and restaurants line the seafront, and the marina is about 300 m from the sand.

Louis Richard, the Peugeots and the sardine port

Morgat was a sardine and tuna port until the early 1880s, when Louis Richard, a travelling salesman, saw its potential and went looking for backers. A development company, Richard et Compagnie, was set up with members of the Peugeot family, among them the industrialist Armand Peugeot. Richard opened the Grand Hôtel de Morgat in 1885, but it stood about 100 m from the beach with no sea view, so Peugeot pushed for a new beachfront hotel, the Grand Hôtel de la Mer, built and enlarged between 1908 and 1912. Holiday villas spread along the bay as fishing declined.

Flaubert's sea caves and boat trips from the marina

The cliffs east of the beach hold the Morgat sea caves, with walls that shade from green to red. Gustave Flaubert visited them in 1847 on his journey through Brittany with Maxime Du Camp. Guided boat trips leave from Morgat marina, generally from April to October, and kayaks and paddleboards can be hired there too. The Grotte de l'Autel is the largest and best known, reaching about 80 m into the cliff; the Grotte de la Cheminée lies nearby. The Grotte Sainte-Marine is the one cave you can walk to, and only at low tide, so watch the clock on the way back. The first caves are about 1 km along the cliffs from the beach.

GR34 toward Cap de la Chèvre

The GR34 coastal path climbs above the cliffs and looks down into the cave entrances. Followed south, it leads toward Cap de la Chèvre, about 8 km away, across heath and headland.