The Wonders of La Côte de Granit Rose

I’ve been wanting to write about La Côte de Granit Rose (The Pink Granite Coast) since I arrived in Lannion, but so many events have occurred that it feels like I’m running a race against time these last few months!!

La Côte de Granit Rose is the talk of France and beyond, especially when people are visiting the Bretagne region of France. From Louannec, it takes about 10 minutes drive to arrive at the starting point of the walk along the coast. Of course, Xav and I took the more scenic route and stopped along the way to capture some sights of our little town. We’d stopped at a mid-point along the scenic route, where we could see both Louannec and Perros-Guirec (where we’re heading) from where we were standing.

Although we could see the coast from afar, La Côte de Granit Rose does not start at Perros-Guirec. It is, in fact, in a little town called Ploumanac’h, which is between Perros-Guirec and Trébeurden. Situated between these two towns, the coast offers a splendid view of how Mother Nature takes its own course on this earth. For starters, the coast is named as such because the granite rocks that form along the coast and overlook the sea are actually pink (or rose) in colour. This is especially obvious under a beautiful sunny day.

Little walking paths weave all along the coast, breaking into several other little paths, allowing walkers to admire the beauty of the rocks from many angles. Not all of the rocks are by the sea waters though. In fact, there are plenty which are on land and along the walking paths that have been created. These rocks are surrounded by green vegetation, which the French government is continually restoring to maintain the beauty of this attraction.

What is amazing about these rocks is their very natural yet bizarre formation. From one end to the other, the rocks are formed somewhat differently, although the variations are not glaringly obvious. Even I didn’t notice the changes at the beginning, but after having taken a few walks there, I finally saw what has suddenly become so apparent to the naked eyes. Depending on which end of the path you start, the rock formation changes from being vertically eroded to being horizontally or circularly eroded.

On one end, you can see that the rocks are huge vertical chunks that plant themselves deep into the sea. These rocks have narrow lines running vertically, right down to the base. As you walk along the path, you see rocks which are balanced one on the other. These rocks are flatter and smoothly curved, with holes or ‘dents’ in them, making perfectly natural seats. It gives walkers an option to rest their feet or just lay down on a huge rock and sunbathe (with clothes on, mind you!).

Which is exactly what Xav and I did that day! It’s odd how comfortable these ‘seats’ are, and if you lie down on one of the larger rocks, you feel your back curving smoothly and easily along the lines of the rock. Simply convenient if you want to read a book while being surrounded by nature :-D . We took this opportunity to capture a little ‘family’ picture – our first, in fact, in France.

If you look closely enough, you may see the rocks take the shape of animals or things. But you need to be attentive and I suppose, have the eye to spot such things. Xav and I didn’t spot anything except for what has been shown to us before by a colleague of Xav’s when he took us and some Pakistani trainees on a quick tour of the coast. For instance, in the photo here, you may be able to see a seashell-shaped rock balancing somewhat precariously on another rock. All the horizontal rocks look like their hanging by a very thin edge, but in actual fact, they are sitting on about a metre’s width on other rocks. But still, given the size of these rocks, I won’t be surprised if one day, some of them teeter off onto the ground!!

Anyway, Xav and I took Alto with us on a walk at this coast. It is impossible to let him run free here since there are too many people, especially on a day when there is good weather. But when we are able to, we do let him go and he goes crazy climbing over every rock and sniffing every pool of fresh water. There are tadpoles in the water sometimes and he gets attracted by their very rapid movement. We passed by this one particular rock that looks like a surfboard. Both Xav and I climbed it just to pose for a ‘surfing’ photo. It can be quite scary as there are no footholds on the rock below, and once on it, all you see right next to you on the other side is a high cliff, menacing rocks below and waves of sea water crashing over them. At the time we took the photo, the wind was blowing very very hard, enough to knock you off balance if you weren’t quick enough to react. Rather scary, which was why I decided to sit down instead. After all, I was two months pregnant at the time! Alto, obviously, was not happy at all, seeing us up there. I think, it’s not so much for our safety that he barked furiously, but more the fact that he couldn’t possibly climb up such a high rock :-D .

A few more minutes walk from this ‘surfboard’ rock, is the lighthouse of the coast. It’s made of rocks in the 17th century, which were mounted and melded together with sand. It is typical of other rock buildings along the path – one was built for a little lookout during the war, and the other was to keep gunpowder. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover these two little buildings until later, when I didn’t have the camera with me, so sorry folks, no photos! I find it amazing that these century-old buildings actually lasted through the war, through wind and water erosion, and are still standing upright. Our buildings today are already collapsing around us after 20 years! For some apartments, you can even see the cracks in the wall after the third year.

Since we did this tour every time we have a visitor over to our house, I combined a few photos taken at different times. As the lighthouse stands majestically facing the sea, you can see the difference in the landscape during a rainy or stormy weather and one when the sun shines brightly. The sea always remains a mystery to me. Only God knows what secrets it keeps within its darkness and depth.

If you started the walk from the vertical rock formation, you will undoubtedly end at a beach by the little town of Ploumanac’h. This is where all the souvenir shops and restaurants are, so you’d have worked up a good appetite by the time you arrived at the beach. We did, although we didn’t have our lunch there since it was too crowded with people all the time. And we had our dogs with us. They do allow dogs in French restaurants so long as the dogs are well-behaved. Alto was a lot less calmer then than he is now, so chances of him behaving at a restaurant back then was next to nothing!

Despite the fact that we didn’t stop to eat by the beach, Xav nevertheless took a shot of two of his favourite girls – my mother-in-law Elizabeth and moi, bien sûr! It was a lovely day spent at a place of truly natural beauty that refreshed our spirits to the very core of our being. When you stand before such elegance and magnificence, you can’t help but sigh in contentment and of course, of wonder.