With coasts on the English Channel (La Manche in French) on the north, the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the Mediterranean Sea on the south, France has scores of historic lighthouses and a distinguished lighthouse history. It was in France in 1820-23 that the physicist and optical engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827) invented the powerful lighthouse lenses that have always carried his name. France's Département du Finistère (Department of the End of the World) occupies the rugged western end of the peninsula of Bretagne (Brittany). Its dangerous coastline is crowded with lighthouses, more than in any other region of France. So many, in fact, that the Directory needs two pages to cover them all. This page includes lighthouses in the northern half of the département, north of the port of Brest. This coast faces northwest on the Celtic Sea and the entrance to La Manche (the English Channel). 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. The Breton word for a lighthouse is tour-tan; enez is an island, and men is a rock or reef. 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 Brittany are managed by the DIRM Nord-Atlantique - Manche Ouest (DIRM-NAMO) 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 A of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publications 113 and 114. |
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![]() Pontusval Light, Brignogan-Plage, May 2009 Flickr Creative Commons photo by Larry Myhre |
Mer d'Iroise and Île d'Ouessant Lighthouses
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![]() Pointe de St.-Mathieu Light, Plougonvelin, November 2010 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Llorenzi |
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![]() Kéréon Light, Île d'Ouessant, June 2017 Google Maps photo by Sebastien Cannot |
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Mer Celtique Lighthouses
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La Manche (English Channel) Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Côtes d'Armor | South: Southern Finistère
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted August 29, 2005. Checked and revised September 25, 2021. Lighthouses: 41. Site copyright 2021 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.