A coastal point reaching like a sword brandished toward the ocean
The area known as Cap Sizun is a coastal point that extends into the Atlantic, bordered by Douarnenez Bay to the north and by Audierne Bay to the south. At the very end, our equivalent of Land’s End is a narrow sword of granite overlooking the waves: the famous Pointe du Raz (pronounced Pwon-du-Ra), a protected area officially recognised as a ‘Grand Site de France’.
Here in the Cap Sizun, you see why this particular French county is called Finistère: it means the end of the land. You can see promontories and a series of headlands bravely defying the ocean and Brittany’s granite coastline advances like the prow of a ship towards the Iroise Sea. Explore the coast of the Cap Sizun by following the signed footpath along the clifftops, then pause to admire the incredible panoramic views of the sea that you can only get at the Pointe du Raz. Here, mankind keeps a low profile; it’s the birds that rule. Carved out by the sea and the wind, the Pointe du Raz is utterly fascinating, drawing nearly a million visitors each year yet still looks raw and untamed. There’s no shortage of myth and legend, either: far below is a spot where Princess Dahut apparently welcomed and then murdered her lovers, and looking seaward from the Bay of the Departed, you have the treacherous currents of Raz de Sein, the distant Île de Sein, the iconic Ar-Men lighthouse … talk about the stuff of legend!
