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Last modified: 2016-11-20 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Trébeurden (3,627 inhabitants in 2013, 1,340 ha; tourism website) is located half distance (15 km) of Lannion and Perros-Guirec. The coastline of Trébeurden forms the westernmost part of the scenic Pink Granite Coast and the easternmost part of the Bay of Lannion.
Trébeurden, like most of the villages in northern Brittany, was originally not established on the coastline, after the former, coastal Roman settlements had been suppressed by maritime invaders. Once the Saxon pirates had been expelled from Brittany, the area was re-settled by colonists of Breton origin, who had exiled in the British Isles. They were led by semi-legendary monks, who founded villages near a chapel or a miraculous fountain.
Trébeurden was, therefore, a hamlet (tre) established by a Welsh or Irish monk named Perden. Still surviving in several toponyms (Treffiagat, Treffendel, Trégastel, Trégueux, Tréhorenteuc, Trémaouézan), a tre (also trev or treo) was the subdivision of a parish (plou, surviving in Plougastel, Ploufragan, Plougasnou, Plozévet...). Another Welsh or Irish monk, Meilaw, is said to have settled on the Millau island (23 ha), which is located close to the port, with pedestrian access at low tide.
Separated from Pleumeur-Bodou to form an independent parish, Trébeurden belonged for most of the Middle Ages to the powerful Cistercian abbey of Bégard, whose patrons were the Dukes of Brittany.
Trébeurden emerged as a sea resort at the end of the 19th century. Hotels and vacation houses were erected on the coastline after the inauguration of the railway station of Lannion (1887) had granted easier access to the village.
The most famous summer visitor of Trébeurden was Aristide Briand (1862-1932), who served six times as the President of the Council of Ministers (1909-1911, 1913, 1915-1917, 1921-1922,1925-1926 and 1929), mostly known for the Briand-Kellog Pact (General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy, 1928), and co-laureate in 1926 of the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929). From 1921 to 1928, Briand spent his summer vacations on the Millau Island, who had been acquired in 1911 from the Count of Carcaradec by Miss Uro-Lalès, an actress better known under the scene name of Lucie Jourdan and one of Briand's numerous feminine conquests; until Briand's death, Lucie Jourdan organized in her house wealthy parties highly prized by the tout-Paris. Aristide Briand contributed to the fame of Trébeurden, which was awarded the title of Tourist Resort on 13 June 1921; his support is remembered by a monument inaugurated in March 2012, which offers an unrestricted view on the Millau island. "Madame Lucie's house", looted by the Germans during the Second War and subsequently abandoned, was eventually demolished in 2009 by the Conservatoire du Littoral, which had purchased the island in 1984 and has been managing it since then; the farm originally established by the monks of Bégard in 1493 was transformed into self-catering cottages.
The Molène island (lit. Bare island) is the second island part of Trébeurden. Its sand dune, one of the biggest in the area, is endangered by human trampling, while its marine bottoms are a noted scubadiver's hotspot.
Trébeurden is a family-oriented resort, offering six sand beaches. The most popular of them is the Tresmeur beach, set between the Bihit and Castel rocky points that protect it from ocean waves; opening to south-west, the beach experiences water temperature quite high for northern Brittany. Opening to north-west and with a very coarse sand, the Goas Treiz beach is a windsurfer and kitesurfer's paradise.
The natural environment of Trébeurden includes other protected areas, such as the Quellen marshes (22 ha), located behind the Goas Treiz beach and now used as a pasture for Camargue horses, the Milin ar Lan moors, the Lan ar Waremm woods (280 ha), and the valley of Goas Lagorn (47 ha).
Ivan Sache, 8 August 2016
Flag of the Port Trébeurden - Image by Ivan Sache, 8 August 2016
Port Trébeurden (website), the marina of Trébeurden was established in the 1990s as one of the only ports in northern Brittany equipped with a wet dock. Offering 800 moorings protected by man-made rip-rap, the marina is managed by a private company, the Société du Port de Plaisance de Trébeurden, being the only private marina in Brittany.
The building of the marina, which started in January 1990, causing the destruction of the rocky natural environment of the Trozoul cove, stirred a violent local controversy, which opposed, on one side, the municipality and the permanent population of Trébeurden, who presented the marina as a project critical for local development, and, on the other side, ecologist associations and summer vacationers, who opposed to the destruction of a landmark of touristic value. Five local associations obtained from the State Council the postponing of the building until the municipality had revised its zoning regulations and protection measures had been implemented. Yves Lebahy, geographer at the Université Bretagne Sud in Lorient, considers that the project was mostly "a property project, which deeply altered the cove's site". He further claims that "marinas are indeed a pretext for urbanization and property speculation.". The marina was eventually inaugurated in early July 1993, two years later than originally planned.
On 15 July 1993, Alain Guennec (d. 2011), Mayor of Trébeurden from 1989 to 1993, was sentenced to one year imprisonment and another three years with suspended sentence, for influence peddling. The sentence was based on evidence he had been given a backhander of more than 300,000 FRF by the company in charge of the design of the port. The affair and fund shortage preserved the coastline from massive urbanization.
[
Les Échos, 16 July 1993; L'Humanité, 16 July 1993]
The flag of Port Trébeurden is made of the logo of the marina, which depicts on a blue background the white silhouettes of three ships, without sails, on waves, lit by a yellow sun in the upper horizon. The name of the marina is written on two lines beneath the emblem, in white letters.
Ivan Sache, 8 August 2016
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-22~tb.gif)
![[Burgee]](../images/f/fr-22~t1.gif)
Flag and burgee of YCT - Images by Ivan Sache, 19 December 2009
The YCT (website) was established in 1956 by Yves Le Mellot (1902-1982), Commander of the Schooner Group at the Brest Navy School from 1945 to 1947. Organizer in 1958 of the national championship in the Cormoran class, the club had 55 members in 1960.
In 1986, Christian Saintier re-activated the YCT, which, at the time, owned only "a registration with the French Sailing Federation, a burgee and a pair of walkie-talkies". The first Yealm-Trébeurden regatta (now the Yealm-Trébeurden Summertime Race), crossing the English Channel, was organized in 1990. The MiniFasnet 1998 started from Trébeurden; among the participants was a young, promising British sailor, "who did not speak French yet", Ellen MacArthur. Bernard Lecuyot created the next year the Trégor Cup.
The rowing section of the YCT was established in 2013.
The flag of YCT is diagonally divided white over dark blue, with a dark blue ermine spot in canton. The burgee of YCT, part of the club's badge, is a triangular version of the flag.
Ivan Sache, 8 August 2016
