Cap Fréhel

Cap Fréhel is the opposite of Dinard and an hour away: no villas, no promenade, just four hundred hectares of protected heath ending in red-pink cliffs that drop straight into green water. A lighthouse stands at the end of the road, with the stump of its seventeenth-century predecessor beside it.

The cliff path along the top gives the classic frame — two people small against a very large edge — and the sea stack of La Fauconnière, off the eastern side, is a seabird colony you will hear before you see. Fort la Latte, a thirteenth-century castle on its own rock, is fifteen minutes further along the coast and worth adding when there is time.

Late afternoon into sunset is the hour, and the season decides the colour: gorse turns the heath yellow in spring, heather turns it purple in August and September. It is fully exposed, often windy and has no shade at all. Stay on the marked paths, which exist to protect the heath as much as the visitors, and check the parking arrangements, which change with the season.