Île de Sein
Encyclopedia
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...
island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, off Finistère
Finistère
Finistère is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.-History:The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel...
, 8 kilometres from the Pointe du Raz
Pointe du Raz
The Pointe du Raz is a promontory that extends into the Atlantic from western Brittany, in France. The local Breton name is Beg ar Raz. It is the western point of the commune of Plogoff, Finistère....
(raz meaning "water current"), from which it is separated by the Raz de Sein
Raz de Sein
The Raz de Sein is a stretch of water located between the Isle of Sein and the Pointe du Raz in Finistère in the Brittany region of France.This tidal water is an essential passage for vessels wishing to pass between the Atlantic and the English Channel, because further west at high tide the Isle of...
. Its Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
name is Enez Sun. The island, with its neighbouring islets, forms the commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
of Île-de-Sein in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Lying on the sea routes going south from the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, Sein is well known for the dangers of its waters, the Chaussée de Sein, a vast zone of reefs stretching more than thirty miles from east to west, requiring numerous lighthouses, beacons, and buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...
s. In the past, it was also known for its wreckers
Wrecking (shipwreck)
Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered near or close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage...
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, all the men of the island, a total of 124 between the age of fourteen and fifty-four, embarked on their fishing boats for England where they joined Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's Free French in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
after hearing de Gaulle's call to resistance in his appeal
Appeal of June 18
The Appeal of 18 June was a famous speech by Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, in 1940. The appeal is often considered to be the origin of the French Resistance to the German occupation during World War II. De Gaulle spoke to the French people from London after the fall of...
to the French on 18 June 1940. In 1946, the island as a whole was admitted into the extremely select Order of the Liberation for this feat and its residents were exempted from paying income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
, a privilege they enjoy to this day.
During the 1960s, the renowned French artists Maurice Boitel
Maurice Boitel
Maurice Boitel Maurice Boitel Maurice Boitel (July 31, 1919 – August 11, 2007 in Audresselles (Pas-de-Calais), was a French painter.-Artistic life:Maurice Boitel belonged to the art movement called "La Jeune Peinture" ("Young Picture") of the School of Paris, with painters like Bernard Buffet, Yves...
and Jean Rigaud
Jean Rigaud
Jean Rigaud is a well-listed French painter. He was born on June 15, 1912 in Bordeaux, France to the well-known painter, Pierre Gaston Rigaud . The Rigauds moved to the village of Guyenne in 1914, shortly after World War I began. It was during this time that Jean Rigaud received his first formal...
painted in the Île de Sein.
Population
Inhabitants of Île-de-Sein are called in FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Sénans.
Further reading
- Queffélec, Henri, Un recteur de l'île de Sein, Éditions Bartillat, Paris, 1999, ISBN : 2841001210