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) occupies
a peninsula at the northwestern corner of France, separating La Manche
(the English Channel from the Golfe de Gascogne (Bay of Biscay). Like Wales, Bretagne is
an ancient Celtic country that maintained its independence until the
end of the fifteenth century. Today it is divided into four départements
of the French Republic. This page includes lighthouses of the
department of Côtes d'Armor facing north on La Manche. Ar mor means "the sea" in Breton, so the name of the département means "coast of the 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. 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 Publication 114.
- General Sources
- Les Sentinelles des Mers - France - Bretagne
- Photos and information posted by Guy Detienne.
- Le Phare à travers le
Monde
- A large, well known site maintained by Alain Guyomard and Robert Carceller.
- Lighthouses
of Bretagne
- Excellent photos by Marc de Kleijn.
- Leuchttürme.net
- Frankreich
- Photos and notes by Malte Werning.
- Lighthouses in Côtes-d'Armor
- Photos available from Wikimedia.
- France Lighthouses
- Aerial photos posted by Marinas.com.
- Online
List of Lights - France - North Coast - West Part
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas. Many photos for France are by Capt. Peter Mosselberger ("Capt. Peter").
- Phareland, le Site des Phares de
France
- This comprehensive site has good photos and information about the major
lighthouses.
- Société Nationale
pour le Patrimoine des Phares et Balises (S.N.P.B.)
- The French national lighthouse preservation organization.
- Französische
Leuchttürme
- Historic photos and postcard images posted by Klaus Huelse.
- GPSNavigationCharts
- Navigation chart information for Côtes d'Armor.
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Phare du Cap Fréhel, Plévenon, October 2023
Instagram photo by Alain Paterne

Grand Phare des Roches-Douvres, July 2021
Instagram photo by Armel Ruy
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