I am frequently asked questions regarding the regulations for paddling on the sea in France.  Unfortunately it is not always clear, often completely unknown, and occasionally when known completely ignored.

I have created a page “Paddling French Waters ” that lays out in simple terms how you can comply with the French regulations, and concentrate on paddling without concern that you may be doing something wrong. A couple of sample declarations are available at the end of the text, use them/ modify them as suits your personal circumstances.

Most visitors will find the information given sufficient, however, if you paddle something other than a typically  modern,  professionally constructed sea kayak then other restrictions come into force. At a future time I’ll add to this document to include information relative to home built Ceder Strip/ Skin on Frame kayaks.

In the meantime please read the disclaimer, interpretation of the law is not always the same from one Region to another, indeed I have been refused registration of my boat in St Nazaire because of incorrect paperwork but later approved for Registration at Vannes using exactly the same papers.

As a foreign visitor in France you should always carry identification, (Passport or National ID card) it is a requirement for the French also, and the requirement is the same whilst on the water !   ( I carry a photocopy of my passport )

I will of course be interested in your experiences, particularly when stopped by Gendarmes Maritimes.  If you discover any discrepancies with the text please let me know, it will help make paddling in France  easier for all.

Finally, regulated quite separately from these Registration rules is the ban on Night paddling.   This ban is not aimed solely at kayakers, but at ALL craft propelled by human power (it also includes Jet Skis in the definition)

Brittany accounts for more than a third of all French Lighthouses,  Île de Sein hosts two. The major Light ‘Grand Phare’ was originally constructed and brought into service in 1839. During the second world war Île de Sein was occupied by the Germans, they laid charges in the lighthouse and subsequently destroyed it (some say after the end of the war) in 1944.

The nature of the sea off the coast of Finisterre meant a great danger to shipping existed with the loss of this lghthouse and a temporary steel structure was erected with an oil lantern.  The new Lighthouse was completed in 1951 and brought into service.  The light house has it’s own electricy generation plant which also provides electricity to the islanders homes. The plant also operates a large desalination plant providing fresh water for the Islanders.

This is a great trip to make, just four miles off the french coast, but requiring a passage past the largest overfalls in France, the Raz du Sein

The cairn Petit Mont at Arzon at the entrance to the Golfe du Morbihan can be traced back more than  six and a half thousand  years.

It started as a plain burial mound, then over the centuries was developed and enlarged to incorporate a passage leading to a chamber, the structe of the chamber described as semi megalithic.  These structures lasted well up until the German occupation of France,  their engineers decided modifications were in order and promptly extended the accommodation and added a new protected entrance

Paddling on the Golfe du Morbihan is always a pleasure, the picture below shows Île Berder at low tide (coefficient 102)  The lower ledge linking the island (on left ) is the cill which the flood flows over creating another tidal playspot.  Unfortunately some repair work on the cill last year incorporated a general tidy up of the sea bed which has left it quite flat and featureless, the knock on effect is the loss of the two standing waves that formed on the higher spring tides.
Even without the waves the current zips through this gap and remains entertaining

Here at the same location showing the flood

Outside the Golfe, this beach was covered in this bright red seaweed, I can never remember seeing it in such abundance, I’m now believing that the unusually warm weather we are having at the moment may well be the cause…. this afternoons temperature was 14° C   27th November!

A Ria is a large Estuary made up of many low lying fingers of land, the Ria d’Etel lays at the end of the River Etel also known in Breton as Ster an Intel.

Apart from being an area of outstanding beauty, there are some quite stunningly beautiful towns and villages. Most recognised is Saint Cadoadjacent to the Ria,  a small Island off the shore carries what appears to be a tiny cottage, and begs the question as to “Who lives there ? “    There are in fact five of these tiny houses around the Ria which were built around the begining of the century for night watchmen to keep an eye on the Oyster beds.  theft was a huge problem and the Oysters were highly valued.  There are still many  Oyster beds around the Ria today.

The Ria also offers more for the paddler, each spring tide will see the arrival of Sea Kayaks, playboats, and slalom boats.  The estuary contains an area of around 22 sq kilometers, which fills each tide.  Less than four kilometers from the entrance, the Ria is strangled with just a 100 meter passage for all these tidal waters.  A group of rocks and islets just upstream create excellent playspots whatever type of craft you are paddling.
The attractions do not rest there, across the entrance to the estuary lies the ‘Bar d’Etel’  A large shifting sandbank that can throw up some excellent surfing waves and often standing waves that can be surfed, of course because of the shifting nature of the sand bar, it is never possible to predict just how it will perform

It really is a favourite place !

The Purpose of this overnight trip was to take advantage of the brilliant sunshine and make the crossing over to Île Chausey and take stacks of photos. The tidal co-efficient was 78, Easterly winds Beafort 4 with a sea state 3.    Ideal conditions for the crossing of 8 Nmiles. I anticipated around 2 hours for the crossing.

Launching from the ‘Cale d’Haqueville progress was rapid, once a couple of kilometers into the channel, the wind was pushing the swell up nicely to around 1 meter producing a good wave shape allowing some good surfing, recorded speeds of 13 Km per hour. This good progress continued for an hour and half until I reached the reef. Here the wind driven swell stacked the waves up to a meter and a half often breaking quite fiercely.  The floor of the reef adding to this disturbance as the tide raced over, really quite small overfalls exagerated by the combination of wind and tide.

I landed on Île Anneret at 3/4 Low tides, a good 200 meters portage up above high tide mark, as I unpacked the Camera gear I noticed a patch of condensation in the top LED viewer, this was not  good news. The film count was still registering in the display. I decided to take out the battery and MM card, leave the doors open and let the condensation dry out. After some 30 minutes the display was once again clear, I reinstalled the battery, nothing happened, the display was dead.

This rather  took the edge of a rather excellent crossing, here I was on an empty island to take some pictures with no camera. I had originally planned to make the return crossing the following day, however with this camera mishap I was feeling quite frustrated and after checking the next flood tide times decided to return the same day.

Another check on the weather showed the Easterly BF4 remaining for the rest of the evening, I expected this would add an additional 30 minutes of paddling onto the trip.

I quickly packed my kit carried it down to the boat and got loaded up with an hour left to launch time. I used the Iphone app ‘Tides Plan’ and saw there was no need to move the laden kayak, at my launch time the tide will have risen up to where my kayak lay on the beach, so good news. At 4.15 pm I climbed into the boat and by 4.30 the tide was up and I was on my way

It was another fast run but this time with wind against tide it was really quite bumpyI would race up the front of the waves at 9 or 10 km per hour then crash down onto the back of the wave  sliding down into the next wave the speed of the boat would drop to 4 Kph.  This continued all the way across, by half way I was suddenly aware of being surround by RHIBS Yachts and motor cruisers, at this point now having paddled some 24Kms  I felt obliged to show some good style in my technique … I really didn’t want to have the coastguard called in to a tired Kayaker 8 km off the French coast at dusk (paddling on the sea at night is against the law ! ) So I pushed on at some 9km per hour, soon as night fell all the other sea-goers had left me behind.  I had my head torch on which was doing a great job illuminating my compass.

As light fell completely the Granville Lighthouse started which meant I no longer needed the compass, allowing me to switch off the head torch. within minutes my night vision had returned fully and I began to enjoy this night paddle. I cut in very close to the point at Granville above which is situated the Coastguard semaphore station, from a distance it appeared in darkness, but as I approached closer I could see the red glow illuminating the watch keepers. I slipped quietly passed under the coastguard station passed the Harbour entrance and finishing at 7pm where I had started off that morning

A somewhat disastrous day for the camera but with two very enjoyable crossings spiced with a nice balance of challenge.

Would I do this again … Yes definitely !

A clear out of the GPS  revealed the trace of the trip to Île d’Ouessant. The route out is via Île Molene, this required a 2 hour wait on Molene for the currents to reduce to a practical level.  We crossed the Fromveur channel when the currents had reduced to 4 knots;

The return trip was more straightforward, leaving the island with the last of the flood and after a short period of slack water, taking the south setting ebb stream back to le conquet.
A major crux point is positioning at the entrance to le conquet harbour……. we were moving at 14kph and it required  an accurate breakout to avoid missing the harbour entrance

A few too many days off the water led to a hastily planned trip to the Golfe du Morbihan
Usually my trips to the golfe coincide with the spring tides to take full advantage of the currents, however with a coefficient of just 35 it really was the lowest neap that I have ever paddled on. The outline plan was to take a trip up the River Auray and on to the upper reaches of the River Bono

We parked in the large car park at Port Navalo, the bays were clearly marked “PAYANT”… it wasn’t that long ago that all parking was free, but we quickly discovered that paid parking is restricted to the summer months.

Port Navalo is at the entrance to the Golfe, and even on neaps the current is fast, we planned to cross at slack moving up the river with the tide. It was still busy at the end of the summer with motor cruisers, yachts and fast touring ferries all jostling for space.

Soon we left the bustle and found a rather beautiful and tranquil river, the banks gave way to salt marshes hosting Egrets and Spoonbills.

Turning right into the River Bono led us up to the small drying harbour of Port du Bono, with an hour or so to spare before the tide turned we want up the hill for a beer.

Our return was fast, it also meant we would need to cross the main stream as it left the Golfe. We took a route on the inside of ‘Petite vezid’ and crossed over to the Petite Mouton, even on this neap tide there were some good bouncy waves in the main channel demanding a degree of accuracy to make the eddy after Petite mouton, before a more leisurely paddle back into Port Navalo

La veille de notre depart, nous avons eu droit a ce superbe coucher de soleil avec vur sur Aurigny.

On a charge les bateaux avant de dormir. Le matin, sur l’eau une demi heure plus tot que prevu, depart a 11h. Traversee sans incident mais nous avons ete trop lents sur le dernier tiers ( qui coincidait avec l’augmentation des courants), ce qui nous a valu des efforts pour passer la pointe nord de l’ile vers Saye Bay ou se trouve le camping.

Le dernier “tide race” au nord est de l’ile a ete trop fort et on n’a pas pu le franchir, donc nous l’avons passe au sud est et une fois proches de la cote, nous avons pu remoter entre les cailloux. Ca nous a coute une heure!

Voici la photo du camping situe derriere la dune de Saye Bay.

Notre plan de depart etait de visiter l’ile le lendemain de notre arrivee puis de descendre vers le reste des anglo normandes, mais le temps n’etait pas genial. Nous avons passe une semaine sur l’ile avant de pouvoir faire la traversee retour.

Les coefficients de maree montaient ce qui augmentait la vitesse du courant pour traverser le Raz Blanchard ce qui nous empechait de rentrer. Les vents sud ouest Beaufort 5 nous empechaient de descendre sur Guernesey.

Nous avons pense faire du bateau stop mais le seul capable de nous prendre avec les kayaks, le Jantje ( sur la photo) etait plein, dommage, on aurait bien aime une petite croisiere a bord de ce vieux grement!

Nous avons eu largement le temps de visiter l’ile.

Voici une photo de la colonie de Fous de Bassan sur les Etacs au sud ouest de l’ile.

Un superbe coucher de soleil allant du violet a l’or deux jours avant notre retour>

La traversee avec un coefficient de 84 a ete tres agreable, mais pas le temps de s’arreter pour grignotersinon on risquait d’etre pris par les courants. Trois heures de traversee.

Merci aux gardes cotes d’Aurigny a qui nous avons communique notre plan de traversee.

Une ile interessante, entouree par 7 “tide races” et 3 gros secteurs de deferlantes.

Michelle entrant le “tide race” a l’exterieur de la jetee.

Rule 500 auto bilge pumps have now been installed in both boats

Fully automatic pumps were chosen for the simplicity of Installation. There are 3 single core conductors sealed into the pump body, these have been joined onto a 3 core sheathed flex to allow the use of a waterproof gland through the bulkhead to the day hatch.

The joints in each conductor have been ‘crimped’ onto the sheathed cable. To waterproof the joints, a short length of plastic tube was slid over and the tube filled with sealant. The conductors from the pump are insulated with silicone insulation, and I found that a silicon sealant can ‘roll’ off quite easily.

I came across some glue called “Sticks like Sh*t ” thought I must try that …. It has sealed all the joints in the tube and has dried colourless allowing any corrosion to be identified before failure
Time will tell !

Where the sheathed cable passes through the bulkhead, and into the sealed battery box, waterproof “Stuffing glands” have been used. The pump runs from 12 volt sealed lead acid batteries. Mine has a large capacity 7Ah so I have power to charge my iPhone as well as a number of AA batteries for the gps

The skin fitting has a small soft foam bung pushed in to keep the water from entering through the pump, the manufacturers specify ‘No non return valves’ When tested, the bung shoots out when the motor pumps water

Often it can be difficult to purchase fresh meat when on an extended paddle trip.The alternative is tinned meats, frozen meat and commercial products. The availability of ready made boil in the bag products is now good, however these are expensive, and are heavy to carry. By dehydrating your own you can prepare a wide range of good quality meals. Over time I now find that minced beef is good to dry, the preparation is quick and easy, and it is easy to make up a tasty dinner like spaghetti bolognaise.

Minced beef after drying loses 75% of its weight, when stored in closed plastic bags will keep for 3 months, and when vacuum packed for nine months

Here’s a few photos of the process

This a commercially available “Stockli” food dryer, after cooking the mince (Cook only enough to turn the pink meat brown ) You need to get rid of all the fat. Most can be spooned out of the pan immediately after cooking, next fill the pan with boiling water, the fat left will now float on top of the water.. scoop this away. You may need to do this 2 or 3 times depending on the fat content of the meat

Remember, the fat will reduce the effectiveness of drying and will quickly turn rancid.

The dried meat takes on the appearance of coffee granules after about 6 hours and will be hard and crunchy, and once packed can be stored in a freezer for up to two years (do not re freeze )

Many vegetables lend themselves well to drying, and are worth experimenting with.
Importantly, dry meat at a temperature of 70° this is necessary to kill bacteria in the meat.

The meat needs as little as 15 minutes to rehydrate in water, but longer times will improve the texture. Using warm water produces quicker results. After rehydrating add a little olive oil to take the dry texture away and then cook as you would usually do with fresh mince