Petit Bé is a tidal island

Tidal island

A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...

 near Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, close to the larger island of Grand Bé

Grand Bé

Grand Bé is a tidal island near Saint-Malo, France. It is located at the mouth of the Rance River, a few hundred meters from the walls of Saint-Malo. At low tide the island can be reached on foot from the nearby Bon-Secours beach...

. At low tide the island can be reached on foot from the nearby Bon-Secours beach.

Fort

On Petit Bé is a fort built in the 17th century. It was part of the defense belt designed by Vauban to protect the city of Saint-Malo from British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 fleets

Naval fleet

A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....

. This belt also included the Fort National

Fort National

Fort National is a Fort just outside the walled city of Saint-Malo. It was built in 1689.-Sources:* *...

, the Fort Harbour, the Fort de La Conchée, thes forts of Cézembre

Cézembre

Cézembre is an island in the Ille-et-Vilaine département of France, near Saint-Malo. The island is uninhabited, with a surface area of approximately 18 hectares , a length of 750 meters, and a width of 300 meters....

 and Pointe de la Varde (these last two have been destroyed) and the wall of the city. The forts were built by the Saint-Malo engineer Siméon Garangeau.

Property of the French army until 1885, the fort has been returned to the city of Saint-Malo. It became a Monument historique

Monument historique

A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...

in 1921, but was forsaken until 2000, when the city année où la ville de Saint-Malo gave a free rent to a non-profit organization for the renovation and visiting. It is still in renovation (April 2007) but can be visited at low tide.

External links

• Petit-Be.com (french)
• Information about Petit Bé fort (french)