A little history

Located in Brittany, Fort La Latte is a historic monument in the Bay of St Malo on the Emerald Coast (near Cap Fréhel).

It is said to have been built by a Goyon under Alain Barbe-Torte in 937. To say he saw and experienced it would be an understatement 😬!

Besieged, looted and burnt, it was destroyed and rebuilt like many castles before being listed as a historic monument in 1925.

It has been restored since 1931 by the Joüon Des Longrais family.

It is now one of the most visited châteaux in Brittany, after that of the Dukes of Brittany in Nantes.

Find out more about its history and information about visits, I invite you to visit the official website.

The Capture of Fort La Latte

Starting from Fort La Latte, like many seasides, it's possible to follow little hiking trails. That's exactly what my family and I did at the end of the day (and yes, I had made an appointment with the golden hour 😉 ) to get to the spot where the Fort was photographed above. Allow around 15 to 20 minutes' walk. At a certain stage, there are small rocky points, with cross paths that will allow you to have a view offset from the seafront and keep some height.

You'll find this spot just before the big coastal curve that leads to Cap Fréhel. So I took this picture on the front page at around 7.40pm in April. My settings were Iso100 1/40s f/20 at 24mm. I was on a tripod. I like to take my time.

To find out more on photography settings, I invite you to read this articleor this one is specifically for sunsets.

Going a little further ...

And of course, you can then continue for several hundred metres, for a good walk to Cap Fréhel itself, and its lighthouse. Of course, taking advantage of the golden hour at 2 different spots at the same time is a bit risky, but you'll end up with nothing! To be sure, it's better to come twice!

You'll still need a good while to make the journey along the paths and/or walk very fast. There are perhaps 1.5 to 2km maximum. That's what we did to get to the Cap Fréhel lighthouse. At sunset, it's a magnificent place, as you can see from the photos below.

No editing, just simple post-production processing in Capture One, and a little Orton effect with On1 Photo RAW (I love landscapes with slightly dreamlike looks). In these shots, it was almost 9pm. A great moment of meditation with the family!