Vestiges (33)

Relics of Brittany's past

This fort on the Pointe des Poulains, north-west tip of the island Belle-Ile-en-Mer, was bought in 1894 by actress Sarah Bernhardt, who fell in love with the wild setting. Built in 1859, then abandoned after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War and the fall of Napoleon III, the fort is now open to the public, with rooms full of the clothes and furniture of ‘La Divine’. She saw it as a refuge from her very public life, and visited every year, being carried up the steep steps from the boat at the foot of the cliffs after she lost a leg in 1915. She was supportive of local life, helping struggling fishermen, a co-operative bakery initiative and the church in nearby Sauzon. Her house-parties were as notorious as her travelling menagerie, which included a boa constrictor and a crocodile.