Belle-Île-en-Mer via the
GR 340

Sarah Bernhardt considered one of the most important French actresses of the 19th century liked to come every year to Belle-Île-en-Mer to taste the sweetness of life and let yourself be carried away by the charm and wild beauty of this little piece of Brittany.

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Belle-Île and Sarah Bernhardt, is a long story that began in the mid-1890s, thanks to the French painter and illustrator Georges Clairin. A few steps were enough for the tragedienne to fall madly in love with “the aptly named island”.

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As she said herself: “the first time I saw Belle-Île,I see it as a haven, a paradise, a refuge. I discovered there at the windiest end a fort, a place especially inaccessible, uninhabitable, uncomfortable. and which, consequently, enchanted me”.

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Bewitched by the crashing and incessant sound of the waves of the wild coast, she therefore set her sights on this old abandoned fort at the Pointe des Poulains. She bought it without hesitation and without haggling​, for 3,000 francs. A pittance at the time for a star of his rank.

 

Aware of its true value, she even said of this picturesque island "that it was a precious pearl, a delicate emerald, a rare diamond iridescent by the blue reflections of the sky and the sea mixed together."

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In the August 1, 1904 issue of the magazine Femina, the great reporter Georges Bourdon who visited him published in his report a letter from SarahBernhardt addressed to readers of the magazine. She recounted what her days were like on the Breton island.

 

"You want to know what I'm doing atBeautiful island? I rest there. More exactly, I rest there while getting tired. I lead in Paris, as you know, a paradoxical life. You have to breathe well all the same! And the destiny which made me the servant of an art where the brain, the heart, the sensitivity, the intelligence are the only ones to work, also gave me a taste, a need, a fury of physical movement. How to reconcile this? I don't reconcile it, but I go to Beautiful-Island." 

 

My turn, I had the desire in 2022 to take a deep breath of iodized air and walk the GR 340 path to go around the island on foot.

 

I'm not ready to forget these magnificent landscapes made up of high cliffs and   creeks, beautiful white sand beaches.

 

I hope my videos will make you want to embark on this adventure...

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✨ Buen camino ⭐

Lionel of Compostela 🦋