Situated 3 km from Paimpol on the coast road, Beauport Abbey estate is a 70-hectare listed site. Because of its coastal location which encouraged the trade in ideas and goods, today Beauport stands as a reminder of five centuries of monastic history and three centuries of secular history which were no less turbulent.
In 1202 Count Alain de Goëlo founded the abbey after a first monastery built on the nearby island of Saint Rion. Given the emblematic name of "Beau Port" (Beautiful Port), during the Middle Ages is was one of the havens on the coastal route to Compostela but more importantly a centre for commerce and maritime trade.
Up until the French Revolution, the Premonstratensian Canons of Beauport built, added to and enlarged a perfect abbey estate featuring architecture that was both elegant and functional and including a formal garden, cider-apple orchards, fig trees and rose bushes, surrounded by salt pastures and dykes to protect them from the excesses of the sea.
Listed as a Historical Monument in 1862 after the intervention of Prosper Mérimée, this "atypical" abbey was acquired in 1993 by the coastal conservation body La Conservatoire de l'Espace Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres. Since then it has been the subject of an ambitious restoration project involving the buildings, gardens and coastal and forested estate with help from the municipality of Paimpol, the Paimpol-Goëlo Community of Communes, the Departmental Council, the Regional Council, the French Ministry of Culture and the European Union.
Because it is so diverse, the abbey offers a superb opportunity to enjoy not only its architectural and archaeological heritage but also the ornithological and botanical heritage of its reed marsh and other marsh as well as its conservatory orchard. Visiting Bellus Portus will be not only an unmissable part of your stay in the Paimpol area but also an unforgettable memory from your time here.
Fun aqua park with facilities for relaxation: two pools, giant water slide, jacuzzi, sauna, Turkish bath, current pool and geysers.
This municipal museum is housed in a former sailmakers' workshop which was originally built in around 1880 for drying cod.
The permanent exhibition is dedicated to the local maritime heritage and fishing in Iceland.
The temporary exhibitions hall is designed to look like a boat.
Opened in 1990 and managed jointly by the Cercle Anjela Duval and the municipality, this museum provides an opportunity to visit the centre for the Trégor-Goëlo region and recounts the life and costumes of the Bretons: traditional working clothes, ceremonial costumes and the development of the local traditional women's headdress from 1820 to 1930.
Planted over an area of 2 hectares, here you'll have some strange encounters and have to solve puzzles to find the way out.
