Amazing Place: Castel Meur – The House Between The Rocks

In a quiet little village of Plougrescant, France, tourists can visit this quirky and extraodrinary Castel Meur, also known as “The House Between The Rocks”, which has become an attraction for many years.

MAëLICK/CC BY-SA 2.0

Castel Meur, also known as La Maison du Gouffre or “the house between the rocks”, is a charming cottage wedged between two huge jagged rocks that has been drawing tourists to the otherwise quiet little village of Plougrescant, located in the department of Côtes-d’Armor in the region of Brittany, in France, since the 19th century.

The house has her back turned towards the sea, against which her owner sought to protect her by building the house in a cradle between the two rocks to shield her from the violent storms that frequent this place. The tiny house was built in 1861, at a time when building permits did not exist, where anyone could build at will. After the death of her original owner, Castel Meur served as the second home to the descendant’s family who lived here sporadically. The current occupant, the granddaughter of the first master of the house, has lived here since 2004 after selling her business in America and returning back to her land.

Photo: Map of France
West along the coast from Castel Meur, the Gouffre de Plougrescant is a forbidding natural phenomenon where water and wind often combine to howl through the gashes in the rocks. Shingle bars protect a couple of salty pools around which rare marine fauna flourishes, much appreciated by seabirds. Dense scatterings of tiny islands make the sea around the Plougrescant peninsula perilous, for example the Er archipelago in the Jaudy estuary. At low tide, some of these islets are reachable on foot, though. As to the separate Ile Loaven, locals went there to venerate a model of Dark Ages motherhood closely associated with the spot, Saint Eliboubane.

Painted saint’s life