| 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), now one of the 12 administrative regions (régions) of Mainland France, occupies
a peninsula at the northwestern corner of France, separating La Manche
from the Bay of Biscay (known in France as the Golfe de Gascogne). Like Wales, Brittany is an
ancient Celtic country that maintained its independence until the end
of the fifteenth century. Today it is divided into several départements of
the French Republic. This page includes lighthouses of the département of
Morbihan, which faces south on the Bay of Biscay. Many of these lighthouses
are clustered around the Baie de Quiberon, a broad sound partly sheltered
by Belle-Île and the peninsula of Quiberon. In the Breton language the waters sheltered by Belle-Île, including the Baie de Quiberon, are called Morbihan, the "small 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.
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 La Vendée are managed by the DIRM Nord-Atlantique - Manche Ouest 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 D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog
Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
- General Sources
- DIRM - Phares du Morbihan
- Information on the major historic lighthouses.
- Les Sentinelles des Mers - France - Bretagne
- Photos and information posted by Guy Detienne.
- Feux et balises du Morbihan
- Additional photos of Morbihan lights posted by Guy Detienne.
- Online
List of Lights - France - Bay of Biscay
- Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas. Many are by Capt. Peter Mosselberger ("Capt. Peter").
- Le Phare à travers
le Monde
- A large, well known site maintained by Alain Guyomard and Robert Carceller.
- Liste des phares du Morbihan
- Index to articles in the French language Wikipedia; most include photos. Below the list is an interactive map locating the lighthouses.
- Leuchttürme.net
- Frankreich - Morbihan
- Photos and notes by Malte Werning.
- France Lighthouses
- Aerial photos posted by Marinas.com.
- Lighthouses in Morbihan
- Photos by various photographers available from Wikimedia.
- World of Lighthouses - North and West Coasts of France
- Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net.
- 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.
- GPSNauticalCharts
- Navigational chart for Morbihan.
- Google Maps
- Satellite view of Morbihan.
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Port Maria Light, Quiberon, July 2023
Google Maps photo by Mauro Regis

Penlan Light, Billiers, September 2024
Instagram photo by Béa Theaud Becker
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