Fort du Petit Minou, Military fort in Plouzané, France

Fort du Petit Minou is a masonry enclosure with walls averaging six metres high, surrounded by a moat 3 metres deep and 9.5 metres wide. Its remodelled entrance has a monumental gate with a drawbridge, topped by a bretèche carved with the letter V, probably for victory. The photograph shows rough stone walls with vegetation and lower concrete parapets on the coastal slope.

Construction of the fort began in 1692 and was completed in 1697, as part of the fortifications protecting the roadstead of Brest. Vauban added 240-mm cannons, a command post and magazines there. The landward gorge was improved between 1845 and 1856, and the battery was cut into the rock beneath the dry moat between 1887 and 1889. German troops occupied it in 1940 and built a blockhouse.

The fort's entrance was rebuilt with a monumental gate and drawbridge, topped by a bretèche carved with the letter V, probably standing for victory. The site later housed a hotel-rôtisserie, where in 1939 the first scenes of the film Remorques were shot with Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan.

The fort has been open to the public since October 2007 and is reached on foot from the Petit Minou headland. Inside, a dry moat 3 m deep and 9.5 m wide runs along masonry walls averaging 6 m high, so watch your footing near its edge. The entrance was reworked with a monumental gate and drawbridge.

After demilitarisation following World War I, the fort housed a hotel-rotisserie; in 1939 the first scenes of the film Remorques were shot there with Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan. German troops occupied it in 1940 and built a large blockhouse, and the hotel remains were demolished after the liberation in early September 1944.