Photo spot in Quimper & the Pointe du Raz
The Baie des Trépassés
A long crescent of pale sand held between two headlands, backed by dune and marsh, and empty at first light even in August.
About The Baie des Trépassés
Get directionsThe Baie des Trépassés lies between the Pointe du Raz and the Pointe du Van, a wide arc of pale sand closed at both ends by dark cliffs. The name — the Bay of the Dead — comes from wreck and legend rather than record, and the place lives up to the drama: a big Atlantic swell rolls in almost every day of the year, and behind the beach a marsh and a line of dune sit where a lagoon used to be.
What makes it useful is that you can drive to it. There is a car park and a road down to the sand, which means a couple in wedding clothes can be on an enormous empty beach in three minutes rather than after a cliff walk — a rare combination on this coast, and the reason it works for elopements.
The bay opens west-north-west, so evening is the hour: sun down the axis of the beach, long shadows on the wet sand, and the two headlands silhouetted at either end. At low water the sand widens enormously and the reflections start; at high water the beach narrows to a strip below the dune. Both work, but check the tide, because they are very different photographs.
Surf schools use the bay in summer and the wind can be strong enough to blow sand along the beach at ankle height. Keep bags and lenses covered, and expect to work fast when the swell is up.
Best time to shoot
Evening, with the sun down the axis of the bay; low water for wet-sand reflections
Tips
You can park at the beach — no cliff walk needed, which suits long dresses. Check the tide: high water leaves only a strip of sand below the dune.
Other spots in Quimper & the Pointe du Raz
The Pointe du Raz headland path
A spine of grey rock running out into the Atlantic, with La Vieille lighthouse offshore and eight hundred metres of open heath to walk to reach it.
Quimper: Saint-Corentin and the Odet footbridges
Twin gothic spires over a compact medieval centre, half-timbered Rue Kéréon aimed straight at them, and flower-hung footbridges over the river.
The granite square of Locronan
A Renaissance village square of grey granite houses with the overhead cables buried — which is why film crews keep coming back to it.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Baie des Trépassés — free of charge.