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Back to the French version Table d'orientation du môle de Pen Lannic
Project display :
The installation of this table was decided after the major repair work on the mole (in depth, with the injection of resin to fill the voids that had been created over the years, and on the surface, with the consolidation of the quays and the roundhead) have been completed in 2021.
The table was installed on September 1, 2022.
The choice was made to install it almost at the end of the mole, thus exposing it to the onslaught of the sea, during high tides and storms.
Only materials resistant to sea water were thus retained : enamelled lava for the information panel and granite (grey from Louvigné, of Brittany origin) for the supports (top and feet); the only metal elements are stainless steel inserts, embedded in the bonding resin ensuring the junction of the various elements.
On the information panel, with a diameter of 120 cm in the shape of a 260° moon, there is a large photo taken in aerial view with a "fish-eye" lens, and information on the surrounding or more distant sites, and other characteristic themes of local interest have also been developed.
Their texts appear below, placed on the information panel in the center of the aerial photo for the first introductory paragraph and on the periphery for the other paragraphs.
Larmor-Baden, in the heart of the Golfe du Morbihan (Morbihan Gulf)
Larmor-Baden, a township often known as "the key of the Golfe du Morbihan", is located in a privileged spot, very close to the sea of the Quiberon Bay, the door to the Atlantic Ocean, also protected by a series of islands.
Looking at the landscape from the shore, it is hard to identify what is mainland and what are islands.
This is why an aerial view has been used to distinguish land and islands; it was made at 350 metre altitude with a 260° panorama from the East toward Vannes up to the West to Auray.
This allows you to locate the islands in the Quiberon Bay, beyond the Rhuys peninsula and to better understand the landscape complexity of this "little sea", in the centre of this panoramic table.
Oyster farming in the Golfe du Morbihan
The aerial view in front of you shows the large share dedicated to oyster parks in our village, with oyster bags laid on metal stands.
Oyster farming and tourism are the two main economic activities of Larmor-Baden.
Three species of oysters were successively farmed on the French coasts : the flat oyster (ostrea edulis) called European, the cupped Portuguese (magallana -ex crassostrea- angulate) and the cupped Japanese (crassostrea gigas).
The flat oyster is the only endemic species in our region, but it has pratically disappeared from the Gulf.
However, its farming has enduringly marked our landscape as can be seen by the many oyster workshops lining up along our coastline.
The "plates" wooden boats with a flat bottom typical of this region, were used up to the 1970's, to work on the oyster parks; today they are being restored by nostalgic fans.
At the great time of flat oysters around 1950, Larmor-Baden was the second oyster centre in the Golfe du Morbihan after Locmariaquer.
However, for a very long time (until 1870) oysters were not actually farmed but were collected on natural sea beds; piles of shells were found in Vannes Roman ruins and around megalithic monuments.
The first attempt to collect oyster larvaes (spat) was made by Princess Bacciochi (1806 - 1869 Napoleon's I niece) and had a posthumous success.
Other entrepreneurs followed, like Arthur Dillon and the Duchess of Uzès, owners of the Berder Island. And subsequently, several "dynasties" of oyster farmers developed the activity.
They used to raise oysters on the sea bottom. Then around 1980, they started putting oysters in mesh bags placed on metallic stands ("tables") which uncover at low tide, faciliting greatly the work on the parks.
Unfortunately, several epizooties decimated the flat oysters.
The first one occured in 1921; the second one "Marteilia" in 1973 and the third, more lethal "Bonamia Ostre" in 1978, which led to the extinction of the flat oyster.
The Portuguese oyster, cultivated in France from the 1920's to the 1970's, also disappeared victim of epizooties.
Both species were replaced by the Japonese Gigas oyster.
Larmor-Baden, a village in the heart of the "Megalithic landscapes"
7000 years ago, the Golfe du Morbihan was a vast plain with hills, crossed by the rivers of Vannes, Noyalo and Auray.
The neolithic populations built large stone monuments:
- Menhirs (long stone in Breton) either isolated standing in lines (i.e. Carnac and Locmariaquer Peninsula),
- Walls, series of stones erected i.e. Kergonan on the Ile aux Moines or on the small island of Er Lannic in front of Gavrinis,
- Tumulus, huge funerary architectures or mounds built with earth and stones i.e. Tumiac at Arzon or Mané er Hroëck at Locmariaquer, or with earth (tertre), or with stones (cairn) i.e. Gavrinis,
- Dolmens (stone tables in breton) as those of Pen Hap on the Ile aux Moines, on Berder, of Graniol at Arzon and so many others, are funerary architectures which lost their tumulus ...
The most famous tumulus ("cairn") is located on the Gavrinis island (visit possible), a part of Larmor-Baden. Other monuments of the same type were identified on the neighbouring islands of l'Ile Longue and Berder (private islands, without visit).
The cairn of Gavrinis has been classified as an "historic monument" since 1901; it is one of the prehistoric jewels of the Golfe du Morbihan, with no equivalent in the world.
It is particularly famous for its unique engravings covering the surface of 23 of the monoliths which make up the walls.
In addition, excavations carried out in the early 1980's showed engravings on the stone slab covering the funerary chamber, which line up with the engravings on the Table-des-Marchands at Locmariaquer. Both blocks together make a part of a gigantic menhir which may have been previously aligned with the Grand Menhir of Locmariaquer. This confirms that strong and complex connections have existed between different monuments at the neolithic era.
Monuments of that period exist in all places around the Golfe du Morbihan and the Bay of Quiberon. With those of Carnac, they are part of the 550 sites listed by "Paysages de mégalithes" (Megalithic lanscapes), an association of 27 cities in Morbihan which applied to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
More information on site of Megalithic landscapes Association
Animal life in the Golfe du Morbihan
NB : this chapter has only been partially treated on the table, fot lack of sufficient space, limited to a few aquatic species, with their photos; it is developed completely below.
The Golfe du Morbihan shelters an outstanding biodiversity. Species find specific habitats everywhere.
- Aquatic life
Underwater, many species take advantage of the shallow waters of the "little sea".
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- Bass : the favourite fish of fishermen, voracious (eat crabs and fish), you find it in streams
- Sea bream
- Royal : valued by fishermen, also called "the belle with golden eyebrown" or Tallien, by the name of the revolutionary and its cockade; eats sellfish, with teeth able to brew the shells of young oysters, dreaded by fishermen
- Sea bream, formery called "bezu"
- Old fish
- Crenilabre or small old fish, locally called corlazo
- Goby, small fish laid on rocky depths
- Mullet, often in harbours, also in rocks
- Cuttlefish, locally called "morgate" coming at the end of March, and the second generation in September; is fish by nets, fishing traps or with a "turlutte" (device with a lure and a crown of hooks), in the Gulf and around the islands of the Quiberon Bay
- Garfish, a thin fish with a thorny rostrum (a look of a baby billfish), voracious, disliked by fishermen because they entangle fishing lines
- Flat fish : plaice, sole, ray
- Mullet fish : from August to September
- Pollack fish : is fished by dragnet
- Conger : loves cuttlefish, can weigh 25 kg, with a 2,5 m length
- Swimming crabs, locally called "goats"
- Edible crabs, locally called "sleepers"
- Lobster, fish by net or pot ... by skilled fishermen !
- Octopus, cephalopod, like the cuttlefish, more and more on site
- Seahorse fish, discreet in the zostera of the Gulf ... not to be eaten !!
- Earth life
- Ducks : you can see them at Pen en Toul
- Shelduck (of Belon), the largest surface duck in our country
- Mallard duck, the most common; you recognize the male with its yellow beak and its shiny green head, with the female has a brown beak and beige feathers with brown spots
- Teal, the smallest surface duck; the wedding male wears remarkable feathers during the breeding season
- Pintail, slender and smart, with a long thin tail
- Tufted duck, black and white at adult age, with a crest falling on his neck; after the breeding season, its white sides become brown
- Gooseberry cravant (small goose of a mallard duck size), arrives in autumn from Siberia (6000 km) where it reproduces during summer, and leaves at the end of March. One can hear them quacking all together during winter in the Locmiquel bay looking for their zostera food
- Wading Birds
- Spoon, can be seen at the Paludo and Pen en Toul areas, with its long spatulate beak, is easily to recognize by its way of digging the silt with a lateral movement
- Grey heron, a fearsome fisher, along seashore as well as on ground ponds
- Oxguard heron, of african origin, in France since the 1990's, mostly verging on the cattle grazing
- Little Egret, coming from the South of France, in Brittany since the 1990's; looks like the oxguard heron, the difference between them is in the beak (shorter and orange-yellow for the heron, and rather thin and black for the Egret) and the feet (plain dark for the heron and always black with yellow fingers for the Egret)
- Ibis, arrived from Egypt by the zoo of Branféré
- Becassine, with its long, straight and thin beak; a name given from a 1905 Cartoon character
- Woodcok, mainly living in forests
- Goelands : 3 types : herring gull, the most common, brown and marine
- Seagulls : blackheaded gull (Rieuse), Kittiwake or Three-toed seagull
- Tern : 3 types : Common tern (Pierregarin), Sandwich tern (Caugek) and Roseate tern or Sterna dougallii tern (De dougall)
- Cormorant : The Great Cormorant; diving fishing, each day eats its weight, and the Crested Cormorant
- Raptors : Kestrel hawk, Sparrow hawk
- Butterflies : the Great Swallowtail (Grand Machaon), the Peacok of the Day (Paon du jour), Half-mouring Vulcain (Vulcain demi-deuil)
- Ducks : you can see them at Pen en Toul
The "Jument" current
The Golfe du Morbihan opens into the Atlantic Ocean trough a 1000 metre wide pass between Port-Navalo and Locmariaquer.
At each tide (flowing and ebb) more than 400 million tons of sea water move in and out of the gulf, which is a 45 square miles inland sea scattered with about 40 islands and islets, thus creating very powerful tidal currents.
The strongest current ("Jument current") flows between the Berder island and the Jument island (in front of this orientation table). It may reach the speed of 9,1 knots, that is over 10 mph, at the height of the tide.
It is thus considered the second strongest stream of Europe.
The name "Jument" (Mare) is a symbol which refers to the strength and the wild side of a horse; the legend of the Jument island says that the swirls generated by the current look like the mane of a galloping mare.