The Cap Sizun | Office de tourisme de Douarnenez

A breath of fresh air

A few kilometres beyond Douarnenez, you can discover the unmissable sites of the area known as Cap-Sizun, including both man-made and natural gems.

Getting there

The archaeological site of Menez Dregan

To better understand where we come from, the site of Menez Dregan in Plouhinec takes us back in the footsteps of our ancestors. Jump back 465,000 years to the time of Homo Heidelbergensis, early man who learned how to use fire and hunted elephants on the plains that are now lost underwater.

A cave, a necropolis, a gallery grave: Menez Dregan covers a long period of prehistory that goes from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, around 5,000BC. There is a 9-step visitor centre along the coast here that shares specific information about the three archaeological sites and the history of our ancestors who once lived here.

Around the mills…

Built in 1868, Keriolet Watermill is hidden in a valley protected from the wind, surrounded by a fairytale woodland. The 8-metre millwheel is propelled by a stream that runs through fern, moss and granite rocks. Restored in 2008, the mill now produces organic flour and honey.

Tréouzien Mill in Plouhinec was built in 1812, and has been open to the public since 2015. Sheltered in a valley near the pretty port of Pors Poulhan, it also makes flour and produces its own electricity thanks to two spinning wheels.

You can also find two windmills out in Cléden-Cap-Sizun, and while there would once have been several along the Breton coastline, now hardly any remain.

Goulien Nature Reserve

Created in 1959 and managed by the Association Bretagne Vivante-SEPNB, this was one of France’s first nature reserves and is now a refuge for several rare and remarkable species of birds in Brittany. The common guillemot, the northern fulmar, the peregrine falcon, the strange red-billed chough, the great raven, the crested cormorant and the lesser black-backed gull all take advantage of the cliffs here as an ideal spot for nesting.

Fishing ports in the Cap-Sizun

At the foot of the cliffs in the Cap Sizun, tucked away into the rocks, you’ll find a particular type of port-shelter known as ‘port-abri’, little havens for fishing boats that show how local have ingeniously found ways to shelter from this wild coast since the late 1800s. Sailors built these little ports near the waters known as the Raz de Sein, an area that is bursting with fish. Some of these tiny ports have nothing but a seawall, others might have a hoist or even a hut.

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