Tourist guide

• BREST
  This maritime city was ravaged by bomb attacks during the Second World War. The Tanguy Tower is the only vestige of the past to have survived four years of German bombardments.
• PLOUGASTEL-DAOULAS (km 3,5)
  The great “Calvary Cross”, constructed at the end of the 16^th century to mark the end of a plague epidemic, is absolutely unique in its kind.
• GOURIN (km 90,5)
  Many Gourinois migrated to settle in the United States at the end of the 19^th century. A Statue of Liberty was erected in the main village square to commemorate this mass exodus.
• BIGNAN (km 169,5)
  The Kerguéhennec castle, constructed in the 18^th century, is dubbed the “Breton Versailles”. A centre of contemporary art has also been set up here.
• PLUMELEC
  This village has become the Mecca of cycling in Brittany notably on account of the Cadoudal climb, whose summit is the scene of hill top finishes.

Download the tourist guide of the stage(6 pages, .pdf)

Download the complete tourist guide(113 pages, .pdf, 55 Mo)

Jo Le Guen, born in Brest in 1947, has won fame through numerous marathon ocean crossings, first as a sailor, and subsequently as an oarsman. His expeditions are guided by an environmental awareness campaign, via his association “Keep it blue”. This grandson of deep sea fishermen evokes his town, his souvenirs of the Tour de France.

“To a sailor Brest is a doorway out of the protected bay, an open gateway to the world. Every time I cross the Plougastel Bridge at the far end of the bay, I always look towards the West where the horizon is visible between the cliffs. I’ve often looked at the sea from the quayside telling myself that you just have to climb into a boat to go to the end of the world. Maybe for a sailor a bit of salt water will always be a starting point, an opportunity, freedom.

When I was little, like lots of kids from my generation, we marked out a circuit in the dirt or the sand in front of the house, then collected beer bottle caps, wrote the name of a rider on each of them, and played our Tour de France. I remember two names from those races: Rudi Altig and Rik Van Looy, but my most vivid memory is that of a stage in St-Nazaire, and a fall in the pack at the finish. Darrigadehad had won the stage and the yellow jersey, in 1958.”