Le Fort La Latte

I feel very lucky. I live in a beautiful area in France. I thought maybe you'd like me to share some of my favourite places. According to me, one of the best things about blogging is to see how other people live. I can't seem to tire of posts hitting my inbox the same day on snowy gardens from bloggers from Canada or the North of the States and of surfing beaches from Australian bloggers. 

Je trouve que j'ai beaucoup de chance d'habiter en Bretagne. Et comme j'adore regarder les photos des divers paysages dans lesquels habitent les auteurs de mes blogs préférés, j'ai pensé que je pouvais partager un bout de mon chez-moi.

The picture of me I usually use on the blog was taken in an awesome place.

Please allow me to have a moment while I mourn my Panama hat that drowned only days after this picture was taken.

(...)

Ok, now I'm back!

So this picture was taken on the "Cap Fréhel", if you're completely lost, it's under the red arrow on the map!
Brittany is the peninsula on the west of France.

 
C'est vers le Cap Fréhel que je vous emmène aujourd'hui.

Via

So I usually park at Fréhel lighthouse's parking. And from there, you can see a fort in the distance.

Généralement, je me gare au phare. De là, on peut voir, au loin, au loin, le fort La Latte.

Stop squinting your eyes, you'll get wrinkles! (If you really need it, you can always read my skin softener DIY recipe here).

Don't worry, we'll get closer. There's a path called GR34 (not a pretty name, but the path is really pretty) that goes all the way around Brittany and we'll walk on it from the lighthouse to the Fort La Latte.

De là, nous allons emprunter le fameux GR34 qui fait le tour de la Bretagne pour rejoindre le fort.

The building of the fort began in the 14th century.

Sa construction a commencé au 14ème siècle.

At first, people lived in one room that is on the second floor of the round tower you can see in this picture. It was very dark and my camera couldn't take a proper picture of it.

Au début, les membres de la famille vivaient tous dans une seule pièce située à l'étage du donjon que vous pouvez voir sur la photo. Croyez-moi, c'est petit, froid et sombre!

During religious wars, the castle was partly destroyed by fire.

Pendant les guerres de religion, il a été partiellement détruit par le feu. Mais à l'époque de Louis XIV, lorsqu'il est décidé de renforcer les défenses côtières de la France, le fort est rénové, y compris la maison du gouverneur. Pourtant, d'après ce que j'ai lu, le gouverneur n'y vivait pas, trouvant les lieux trop inconfortables.

Then, during the reign of Louis XIV, it was thought that France should defend its coasts and many forts were built from scratch. This one was renovated.

The governor's house (which, from what I read wasn't used by the governor who thought it was too uncomfortable) was also renovated.

In 1715, the year Louis XIV died, M. de Matignon, the lord of this fort, married Louise-Hippolyte Grimaldi from Monaco's Royal Family. From that date, Monaco's Royal Family is linked to Brittany.

En 1715, M. de Matignon épouse une demoiselle Grimaldi, liant à jamais cette famille à la Bretagne. D'ailleurs, le prince Albert nous a fait une petite visite peu après son mariage.

Prince Albert actually visited the little town of Matignon soon after his wedding.

Here he is with a little Britton in traditional costume. People were rather disappointed that the Princess didn't come with him.
 
Aujourd'hui, le fort appartient à des propriétaires privés (mais est souvent ouvert au public) qui en prennent grand soin. Regardez l'adorable jardin médiéval qui redémarrait juste après l'hiver quand j'ai pris cette photo.

Today, the owners still live in the governor's house and Dame Isabelle has a nice medieval garden. I'm so sorry this picture was taken in early spring, so it doesn't do her talent justice.

Tourists can visit everything in the castle, except the governor's house... I was dying to peek throuh the windows but didn't dare. When I visited in spring, it wasn't too crowded and the staff could answer all my questions. For example, they told me that when they have tempests, they are usually out of power in no time. They also said it the noise the waves did when crashing on the rocks was then quite frightening.

Le lieu est souvent utilisé pour des tournages et peut-être vous souvenez-vous l'avoir vu dans le clip suivant.

The castle is often used as a set for films and videos. You can see it in the following video. Please ignore their stupid rapper outfits and concentrate on the background you can see in the chorus. The music uses traditional rythms.

Maintenant, si vous voulez bien dire au revoir à ces vieilles pierres, retournez-vous et tentez d'apercevoir au loin le phare... C'est là que la voiture est garée... ça ne donne pas envie d'être mouette tout à coup? Ne vous inquiétez pas la ballade est superbe.

Now, if you want to say goodbye (or maybe see you soon) to that beautiful castle,  look back at the lighthouse. Yes, this is the tiny tiny grey point over there. This is were our car is parked. Don't you wish you were a seagull right now? Don't worry, the walk is a beautiful one.

Thanks for joining me.

PS:  1) This post was written with informations I collected over the years, but most is from the Fort La Latte website, where you can find wonderful pictures as well as opening dates/times. The website is in different languages.

2) All pictures here are mine, except the one with Prince Albert, taken from a local newpaper. So I don't have any pictures taken from a helicopter... But you can find those on the website above.

3) I'm partying with wonderful people, please visit them when you're done visiting my castle!