At the extreme south of Brittany, Belle-Île is the largest offshore island. Another Bangor can be found here, far from Wales or Maine in the USA. Its origins are shrouded in legend.

One story links the island with the lost city of Atlantis. Another has it that when the fairies were chased out of the

Forest of Brocéliande, they wept enough tears to fill the Golfe du Morbihan, where Belle-Île floats, along with another 175 islets, which sprang into being when the fairies threw away their floral crowns.

The miniature archipelago includes the smaller islands of Houat and Hoëdic and, off the busy port of Lorient, the Île de Groix. Of the four, only BelleÎle, due south of Quiberon, is large enough to have an airfield of its own. The island measures 20km by 9km but its highest point is 73m above mean sea level, at Locmaria.

It is a plateau fissured by little valleys. Its seaward side has a Côte sauvage of its own, where Atlantic winds batter the sparse, heather-clad cliffs with their rocky promontories; the main settlements are on the more sheltered, north-eastern flank of the island, facing mainland Morbihan. These include Le Palais, the island’s principal port, with ferry connections with Quiberon, and Sauzon, linked to Lorient.

Nature lovers should head for Koh Kastel – Breton for ‘old castle’ – an 18-hectare reserve on a headland near Sauzon, set up in 1962. It has Brittany’s largest colony of the lesser black-backed gull, and good crowds of kittiwakes and herring gulls. You may also see fulmars and choughs. For a guided visit, contact the office of Bretagne Vivante, the conservation organisation.

The more historically-minded may care to reflect that the proverb ‘pride goeth before a fall’ applied most particularly to the family of Albert de Gondi, who received the island as a gift from Charles IX in 1572. Albert’s successors broke the bank, building fortifications to the island, and were forced to hand it over to Louis XIV’s war minister, Vauban.

One of the first things you spot, arriving in harbour, is the towering rampart of the citadel, which was a prison from the 19th century right up to 1961. Notable among its inmates were the son of Toussaint l’Ouverture of Haiti, Ben Bella of Algeria, and, briefly in 1848, none other than Karl Marx.

Groix
To reach the Île de Groix you have to start from Lorient – leaving the car behind. A 45-minute crossing brings you to an 8 by 4km realm of sheer, dramatic cliffs and sheltered, sandy beaches.

In the 17th and 18th century, Groix’s prosperity was intricately linked to that of Lorient and the East India trade. Lorient languished as India fell increasingly into British hands, and Groix found a new source of sustenance in tuna fishing. By 1880, it was France’s premier tuna port.

This heritage is in the process of being revived, with a 2005 project to restore the ‘Biche’ (‘Doe’), the last survivor of the great tuna fleet. ‘Biche’ was built in 1932 and fished until 1953, based at Groix. Passing, variously, under Belgian and later British ownership, she was sold in 1991 to Douarnenez Maritime Museum.

Like the other islands, Groix is recommended for walkers or cyclists (bicycles for hire at Port-Tudy, where the Lorient ferry docks). Scuba divers should head for Grands-Sables beach, a stretch of white sand giving outstandingly clear vision some distance off shore.

Bretagne Vivante has another of its protégés on Groix, the François Le Bail nature reserve. You can see fulmars there, along with kittiwakes and cormorants.

 Houat and Hoëdic
Houat and Hoëdic lie between Belle-Île and the mainland. Their names are Breton for ‘duck’ and ‘duckling’ respectively. They represent the crests of a drowned mountain ridge, which in the Mesolithic era stood high and dry.

Houat counts barely 400 souls in winter. Come summer, the population reaches 1,000. The winter population in Hoëdic is scarcely 130, and the two communities sustain themselves by fishing and – in summer – the tourist business. Houat has two hotels, Hoëdic has one.

Despite the relative shelter of the Golfe du Morbihan, the twin, low-lying islands are raked by wind all year round, with storms at any time. For those seeking solitude, they are ideal, being all but free of motor vehicles.

If each island’s coast represents one fifth of its surface area, the other four fifths are wild heathland.
On the east coast of Hoëdic you find wild carnations, sea lilies and other botanical treasures. Houat has dunes clad in wild oats, jasmine and, most remarkably, spikenard – found elsewhere only in the Algarve and Galilee.

Above all, these islands offer the chance to put all that traffic behind you, close your eyes and feel the sun and wind on your face, slowly reaching that state of tranquillity that enables you to distinguish between what’s mundane and what is truly important in this life.