Carnac Plage visitor guide

Visit Carnac Plage, France

Not surprisingly given its name, Carnac-Plage is the beach section of the town of Carnac in the Morbihan department of Brittany. As a result it is the place which attracts tourists after they have explored the town itself and visited the many prehistoric stones for which the town is best known.

Carnac Plage and beaches

There are actually five distinct beaches at Carnac Plage: from west to east these are Plage de Saint-Colomban, Plage de Légenèse, Grande Plage, Plage de Beaumer and Plage de Men-du.

The main beach (Grande Plage) is very pleasant - long and sandy and backed by quite low key apartments and hotels, but all the beaches share very similar characteristics so it is easy to find a quieter beach if you prefer.

Carnac Plage does also have its own small centre of shops and restaurants a little way behind the beach (not along the seafront as is more common with coastal resorts). The centre is compact if a little dated, and offers a very wide choice of cafes and restaurants along with shops offering basic provisions.

There are other beaches close to hand - for an unusual sight head eastwards out of Carnac Plage along the coast road until you reach the Plage du Men Du, the most easterly of the beaches and part of La Trinité-sur-Mer - to see the broad sand bank that runs out to sea to a large sand dune.

Explore the Natural Site of Kervilhen

A little further east along the coast you can see the protected environment of the Natural Site of Kervilhen. Little publicised, it is signposted off the road between Carnac and La Trinite sur Mer.

I highly recommend you find it and spend half an hour strolling along the pathways - the site is a sequence of sand dunes that have been reclaimed by plant life, creating a quite unusual and very attractive natural environment now covered with trees, ferns, small meadows and ponds. There's also plenty of space here at Kervilhen so its easy to find a shady spot for a picnic.

See more seaside resorts in France. You can find more travel ideas in the Morbihan guide and the Brittany guide.