France (officially the French Republic, République française) has coasts facing south on the Mediterranean Sea, west on the open Atlantic Ocean, and north on the English Channel (La Manche in French). Long a leader in lighthouse design, France has scores of famous and historic lighthouses. And it was a French engineer and physicist, Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1837), who invented the powerful and beautiful lenses used in lighthouses around the world. The old French province of Bretagne (Brittany), now one of the 12 administrative regions (régions) of Mainland France, occupies a peninsula at the northwestern corner of France, separating La Manche from the Bay of Biscay (known in France as the Golfe de Gascogne). Like Wales, Brittany is an ancient Celtic country that maintained its independence until the end of the fifteenth century. Today it is divided into several départements of the French Republic. This page includes lighthouses of the département of Morbihan, which faces south on the Bay of Biscay. Many of these lighthouses are clustered around the Baie de Quiberon, a broad sound partly sheltered by Belle-Île and the peninsula of Quiberon. In the Breton language the waters sheltered by Belle-Île, including the Baie de Quiberon, are called Morbihan, the "small sea." The French word for a lighthouse, phare, is often reserved for the larger coastal lighthouses; a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light") or a balise (beacon). The front light of a range (alignement) is the feu antérieur and the rear light is the feu postérieur. In French île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. Aids to navigation in France are maintained by the Bureau des Phares et Balises, an agency of the Direction des Affaires Maritimes (Directorate of Maritime Affairs). The Directorate has four regional offices (called Directions Interrégionale de la Mer, or DIRM) at Le Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseille. Lights in La Vendée are managed by the DIRM Nord-Atlantique - Manche Ouest at Nantes. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. FR numbers are the French light list numbers, where known. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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![]() Kernevest Light, Saint-Philibert, August 2022 Google Maps photo by Patricia Serrar |
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![]() Grands-Cardinaux Light, Hoëdic, 2019 contributed photo copyright Phare des Grands Cardinaux; courtesy of Guy Detienne |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southern Finistère | South: Loire-Atlantique
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted October 4, 2005. Checked and revised October 29, 2024. Lighthouses: 47. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.