Plage de Trestraou and the Sept-Îles

Trestraou is the main beach of Perros-Guirec: a long arc of firm sand under a seafront of white belle-époque villas and hotels, with a casino at one end and the harbour for the island boats at the other. It is the counterweight to the boulder shore a few kilometres north — open, level, easy to reach, and it holds a big group or a family in a way the rocks do not.

The view out is the reason to stand here in the evening. The Sept-Îles sit on the horizon a few kilometres offshore, a nature reserve that holds France's only gannet colony, on Rouzic, and the country's largest puffin colony. Only the Île aux Moines can be landed on; boats run from the harbour at the eastern end of the beach through the season.

At low tide the sand goes out a long way and the wet flats mirror the sky — the best hour for reflections and for keeping people small in a big frame. At high tide the beach narrows to a strip and the sea wall becomes the natural background. The eastern end, under the cliff, keeps the rock of the coast in shot.

Practical notes: the beach is supervised in summer and busy from July to late August, but it empties by seven in the evening, which is exactly when the light is worth having. Boat timetables to the islands change with the season and the weather, so check the day before rather than building the session around a sailing that may not run.