Petit Minou Lighthouse, Maritime navigation landmark in Plouzané, France
Petit Minou lighthouse stands 24 meters tall on a massive rock formation off the coast of Plouzané. Its white and red lights are visible from up to 35 kilometers at sea and mark the entrance to Brest harbor.
The French Navy initiated construction in 1839, and engineer Louis Plantier completed the structure in 1848 using stone from the Aber-Ildut quarry. It became an essential navigation marker for growing maritime traffic in the region.
The lighthouse aligns strategically with Portzic lighthouse to guide ships through Brest harbor's entrance channel. Its distinctive light pattern helped sailors identify their exact position when entering the port.
Parking is available uphill from the lighthouse, offering good viewing points of the structure from the land. The site itself is currently closed to visitors, but the surrounding coastline provides excellent vantage points to observe it.
In the 1920s, engineer André Coyne developed an innovative system near the lighthouse that harnessed wave power through an artificial funnel for air compression. This early experiment with wave energy was far ahead of its time.
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