Lézardrieux: The amazing story of Île à Bois

Neither really an island, nor really a wood, thewood island guard the mouth of the Trieux, at Kermousterin the municipality of Lézardrieux (Côtes d’Armor).

From an island it only has the name since a dyke now connects it to the mainland. And the wood that gave it its name is just the driftwood that used to be collected there to make a fire. A private island that has always been there, there were pastures, fields of hemp or flax, farmed by a family for large local landowners.

But its location at the mouth of the Trieux has also made it a strategic point highly coveted.

The remains on the island are there to testify.

A strategic site

Alain Bohée, a historian familiar with the site, explains: “In the 18th century, the French had to protect the port of Lézardrieux, which was the only deep-water port in northern Brittany. We feared especially the coup de main with the English who considered that their border was the coastline. We therefore built a guardhouse, with an artillery battery, a customs post and an anchorage, as well as a reserve of powder. The guardhouse could accommodate about ten men, with gun crews”. Abandoned, the guardhouse then became a landmark for Lighthouses and Beacons.

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55 blockhouses built during the war

During the Second World War, the Germans immediately spotted this exceptional defense site for the Atlantic Wall. First work carried out: the construction of the dam which will make it possible to transport men and materials for the construction of casemates and blockhouses.

“Before leaving, the Germans sabotaged everything.”

“From April to May 1944, between 400 and 500 French employees worked there. 55 blockhouses will thus be built for a garrison of 90 to 110 men. Seven cannons, mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns are installed there, but none of this will be used until the liberation of the Peninsula from July 15 to 17, 1944. Before leaving, the Germans sabotaged everything”.

However, there remain the ruins of blockhouses and casemates which, in reinforced concrete, have stood the test of time. After the departure of the Germans, the farm was taken over by the owners of the time, but in 1947 the farm burned down.

A former sailor lives there as a hermit

This will be the end point of all agricultural exploitation on the island, which, left abandoned, then becomes the playground of the little Kermoustériens. A former sailor, Francis Bourdon, even settled in a casemate and lived there as a hermit of his daily fishing.

But since 70 yearsthe history of Ile à Bois is inextricably linked to that of a family. Catherine Frey, who lives there all year round, remembers: “my grandfather Jacques Walter bought it in 1955. My grandparents used to sail a lot in Port-Blanc and decided to buy a house in Loguivy . The day of the signing for this house, someone tells them that the Ile à Bois just opposite is for sale. They visit, my grandmother and her daughter, so my mother, sit down and refuse to budge. It will be this island and nothing else”.

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Jacques Walter planted more than 2,000 trees there

Jacques Walter therefore bought Ile à Bois. A lover of trees, he immediately planted more than 2000, oaks, chestnuts and pines, which have since spread. He launches the construction of a big house on the east side, installs a caretaker and his family on the island, and above all, absolute modernism for the time, he finances the running water network for Kermouster and the island.

Nature takes back its rights

From 1957, the whole family gathers from April to September. Beautiful memories while the brambles invaded the casemates, erasing the bad memories. Nature has taken back its rights there, birds nest there, we come across deer, wild boar, martens, foxes and badgers.

Île à Bois was, moreover, classified as Natura 2000 and twice as a Natural Zone of Fauna and Floristic Ecological Interest (ZNIEFF) for habitat and species.

Now rented for events

When I was 8 years old, my grandmother told me that I should take care of the island because for her, it had to go from woman to woman. I always dreamed of living there, now it has become a reality”. Today Catherine Frey rents the island for holidays or family events“it’s a way of bringing it to life, it allows us to maintain it and preserve this place to which I am passionately attached”.

And it is now a place where, for three generations, the whole history of a family has taken root.