What's the worst place in maritime France?

[doug748]

To visit by the seaside, I mean. And why?

A nearby thread reminded me that the most unrewarding place I have seen is Port Crouesty. Unless you want your boat mended or are parking it to go home I can't think of any reason to go there. No picturesque views, no bathing beach, no old town, no solitude. Takes 1/2 an hour to walk around half of it.

What's your worst?

 

[Blue Sunray]

To visit by the seaside, I mean. And why?

A nearby thread reminded me that the most unrewarding place I have seen is Port Crouesty. Unless you want your boat mended or are parking it to go home I can't think of any reason to go there. No picturesque views, no bathing beach, no old town, no solitude. Takes 1/2 an hour to walk around half of it.

What's your worst?

What is your point?

 

[doug748]

What is your point?

Well, I thought there might be some chit chat and we could hear why some people liked some places and disliked others.

Then we could think to ourselves: Coo, I have never been there, I am going to give it a try next time; or Blimey, sounds orrible, never going there. We would learn from the experience of others and share our ideas.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Camaret in the rain.

 

[nauticalnomad]

Ive just moved to Port La Foret. Its in Brittany and beautiful. Suns warm. The air smells of sea. The water is clear and blue. Not murky.
Beach has sand. The only thing i can find that faults it is that the shops close for lunch and there is no corner shops.
If you can handle slow living its perfect. Not much choice in ahops like tescos. But the food seems to be all local and fresh and seasonal. Mooring fees for 14 mtr boat is cheaper than the uk and the sailing season is longer if not all year round if you dont mind the F5 to F6 average between oct to april. OH AND NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH....

 

[TallBuoy]

Camaret in the rain.

I recall you saying that Madame thought that Cherbourg was the equivalent to Scunthorpe.

 

[tcm]

Cherbourg is St Trop compared with places like Grandcamp Maisy, quite nasty as i recall...

 

[ribrage]

To visit by the seaside, I mean. And why?

A nearby thread reminded me that the most unrewarding place I have seen is Port Crouesty. Unless you want your boat mended or are parking it to go home I can't think of any reason to go there. No picturesque views, no bathing beach, no old town, no solitude. Takes 1/2 an hour to walk around half of it.

What's your worst?

We always rate places on the gift shops - if we go ashore and can buy a plastic boomerang with the name of the town embossed into it, then generally speaking I don't want to be there !

so my vote is Concarneau

though Camaret in the rain is also a good choice

 

[[2574]]

though Camaret in the rain is also a good choice

Fabulous walking on the Presquile du Crozon to the immediate south of the Camaret marina. Also good Atlantic War museum.

You guys need to see the good in places not the bad.

 

[sailorman]

Ive just moved to Port La Foret. Its in Brittany and beautiful. Suns warm. The air smells of sea. The water is clear and blue. Not murky.
Beach has sand. The only thing i can find that faults it is that the shops close for lunch and there is no corner shops.
If you can handle slow living its perfect. Not much choice in ahops like tescos. But the food seems to be all local and fresh and seasonal. Mooring fees for 14 mtr boat is cheaper than the uk and the sailing season is longer if not all year round if you dont mind the F5 to F6 average between oct to april. OH AND NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH....

You shold fit in well then

 

[Ric]

St Tropez is undoubtedly the most unpleasant port in France. Full of pretentious uber-rich flaunting their wealth, creepy celebrity-spotters, corrupt capitanerie not the slightest bit interested in welcoming small boats that don't pay bribes, extremely noisy and inconsiderate "cigarette" motor-boats, helicopters buzzing overhead, getting chopped up left and right by motor launches. Absolutely hate the place and stay at least 20nm out to sea if I have to sail past it.

 

[johnalison]

I can't speak from experience of jet-set living as my visits have only been to the north. Most places are a mixture of good and bad but some are somewhat dispiriting.

Le Tréport is top of my list of places to avoid, being a downbeat resort and poky mooring. for visitors, where our French neighbour decided that he needed to go for ablutions at 6am. Even this dire place has a fine cliff walk to the highest point on the coast.

St Malo is not dreadful but treats its town visitors with scant concern.

 

[ribrage]

Fabulous walking on the Presquile du Crozon to the immediate south of the Camaret marina. Also good Atlantic War museum.

You guys need to see the good in places not the bad.

been there seen it done it got the T shirt - CAMERET in the rain is depressing and very little of interest , half a dozen ship wrecks presented as art, a church that's mostly locked , a single row of cafes that at best are rude and condescending and visitor berths that are exposed to weather.

But it we didn't find a plastic boomerang on sale so it wasn't the worst place to be

 

[[2574]]

been there seen it done it got the T shirt

I have the same shirt. There are still many places worse than Camaret.

 

[Koeketiene]

What's the worst place in maritime France?

Calais!

 

[[3889]]

To visit by the seaside, I mean. And why?

A nearby thread reminded me that the most unrewarding place I have seen is Port Crouesty.

Each to their own. Ideal place from which to circumnavigate the Gulf by bicycle, provisioning via pontoon attached to Intermarche, scenic headland walks through pines, excellent shelter, 24 hour access, clean and efficient marina facilities, decent chandlery and great day sailing to Houat, Hoedic, Haliguen, Gulf and Trinite . Beaches: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@47.53708,-2.883825,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s16799690!2e1!3e10!6s%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fstatic.panoramio.com%2Fphotos%2Fsmall%2F16799690.jpg!7i2016!8i1512
I like it.

 

[[3889]]

You shold fit in well then

He shold, sholdn't he

 

[dunedin]

U

Fabulous walking on the Presquile du Crozon to the immediate south of the Camaret marina. Also good Atlantic War museum.

You guys need to see the good in places not the bad.

+1 for the great walking around Camaret. And if waiting longer for a weather window very easy to nip into the Rade de Brest to visit Brest itself or a range of inner anchorages.

 

[dunedin]

A nearby thread reminded me that the most unrewarding place I have seen is Port Crouesty. Unless you want your boat mended or are parking it to go home I can't think of any reason to go there. No picturesque views, no bathing beach, no old town, no solitude. Takes 1/2 an hour to walk around half of it.

What's your worst?

You do have a downer on Port Crouesty, don't you ! It is a very large marina primarily aimed at permanent berth holders, and great for restocking, fueling and repairs. Plus friendly / helpful staff, loads of chandleries and easy access to the sights of Morbihan.
By your criteria I would suggest it would be streets ahead of most English marinas - certainly rather be weather bound at Crouesty than Hamble for instance!

Our experience of French harbours was generally very good. But in fact the bottom two for us were within sight of Crouesty:

Port Haliguen at Quiberon was a big disappointment - seriously silted, such that the berth we were given would have had us aground by nearly 0.8m at LW (it was springs), and even the main channel to the visitor berths was under 2m in places. Unhelpful staff, some of worst toilets & showers we saw in France, poor chandlery and very long walk to get even basic supplies like Croissant. (OK so maybe I have a downer on this one!) Lovely place for a walk, but seemed an over complacent marina.

But by far the worst harbour experience in France (surprise surprise) was Le Palais in the Belle Isle. Mayhem of boats trying to jostle for position before the gates open, rafted 6 deep with 20+ people climbing over the decks into the small hours (pulling on the lifelines each time rather than using the rail gate 2m away and damaging the decks) plus the coaster unloading building materials till near midnight then leaving at dawn. And this was low season April ;-)
Lovely island, and all part of the authentic French experience (alongside the Houat pyjama parties!) - as the West France Cruising Companion cheerfully starts its intro with "When will we ever learn? Le Palais is rapidly gaining an unenviable reputation as the place not to park your boat. Many folk visit once and vow <never again>" - so I was warned!
PS And before you say it Sauzon was out as the Avant Port is too shallow at LW springs and the outer moorings were untenable with strong NE winds, and previous W groundswell meant a trip round to Ster Wenn could be abortive.

But again, we visited lots of French ports and generally great and much cheaper than the UK

 

[sailorman]

Calais!

well in Calais cheap crew are on tap