ÃŽle de Sein

The Ile de Sein ( Breton: Enos Sun ) is a French island and municipality in the department of Finistère in Brittany. The inhabitants of the island call themselves SENANS ( Breton: Suniz ). With a few small neighboring islands, it forms the municipality of Ile- de-Sein with 189 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011).

Geography

The approximately eight kilometers from the Pointe du Raz located on the French Atlantic coast island belongs to Cornwall. Its area is just over 60 hectares, you will be approached by boat from Saint- Evette at Audierne from. The crossing takes 60 minutes.

It is just over six miles long and between 100 and 800 meters wide. The rocky Ile de Sein is very flat, the highest point is only nine feet high, so that the island is frequently threatened by floods at high tide.

History

The island has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was the last refuge of the Druids in Brittany. The inhabitants of the island dedicated especially numerous in the Resistance: When Charles de Gaulle on June 18, 1940 leaving his famous appeal via BBC, the Ile de Sein was different from the rest of Brittany still vacant as of the German Wehrmacht. From June 19 to 26 put all the male inhabitants of military age who were in the civilian commercial fishermen, with their ships from and joined the forces of the Free French to. They made first quarter of the Forces Françaises Libres Navales ("Free French Navy ," short FNFL ) and led de Gaulle to remark: "The Island Being a French Quarter ". At the end of the Second World War, the Ile de belonged Being one of the five cities, by the decree of January 1, 1946, General de Gaulle was awarded the Ordre de la Libération.

Economy and infrastructure

Because on the tiny island no agriculture is possible, almost all living in the same village local inhabitants from fishing and increasingly from tourism. Especially in the summer months, there are several times a day regular ferry services to the mainland.

Although there are already numerous places to stay, visit, especially in summer many day tourists the island. On the island itself and the surrounding reefs are several lighthouses.

The island and its surroundings are now a nature park, not least because of the breeding sea birds.