Pointe du Raz
— — the granite the Atlantic has been working on.
Not only on a wall.
“The far western tip of Brittany. Granite cliffs above the Raz de Sein, where the tidal current runs against the wind and the Phare de la Vieille blinks from its rock offshore. The heather and gorse end at the cliff and then there is sea, the same sea all the way to Newfoundland. A small bronze statue, Notre-Dame des Naufragés, watches over the water for the sailors who never came back. People walk out from the visitor car park along paths that were re-laid after the old ones wore through. Even in summer the wind carries something cold off the Atlantic.
Pointe du Raz, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Pointe du Raz is the headland at the western end of the Cap Sizun peninsula in Finistère, the westernmost department of Brittany. The cliffs rise to about 72 metres above the Atlantic and look out across the Raz de Sein, a narrow tidal strait separating the mainland from the Île de Sein eight kilometres offshore. The point lies within the commune of Plogoff, about 40 kilometres west of Quimper by the D784. It has been classified a Grand Site de France since 2004, recognising the work done since the 1990s to restore the heathland and re-channel visitors after decades of foot traffic had begun to erode the headland.
The Raz de Sein, the channel below the point, is one of the most feared tidal passages on the French Atlantic coast. Spring tides push water through the narrows at up to six knots, and the meeting of wind and current builds steep, breaking seas even on otherwise calm days. The Phare de la Vieille, completed in 1887 on a rock called La Vieille, marks the safe channel, with the smaller Tourelle de la Plate standing further out. The Île de Sein, low and treeless, holds about 200 permanent residents whose highest ground sits only six metres above mean sea level. Sailors have respected this water for centuries.
Cars park at the Maison du Site, about a kilometre back from the point itself. The walk in is along restored paths that protect the remaining heathland from further erosion. Entry to the point is free; parking carries a fee that funds the upkeep of the site. The visitor pavilion at the car park houses an interpretive exhibition about the geology and the restoration programme. Notre-Dame des Naufragés, a bronze by Cyprian Godebski installed in 1904, stands at the seaward end of the path and faces the strait. The headland is open all year, but Atlantic weather in winter is what it is. Bring a layer the wind cannot cut through.