Museum of the Sea (Musée de la Mer)

The museum that visitors usually mean by this name in Concarneau is the Musée de la Pêche, the fishing museum, which stands at the entrance to the walled town on rue Vauban, beside the quay where fishing boats tie up. Concarneau has been a working fishing port for centuries, and its fortunes were built on sardines, then on tuna, and the museum tells the story of the people who went to sea from this coast. It dates from the early 1960s and it sits among old buildings of the arsenal next to the ramparts, so the setting links the history of the port with the story of the fishing trade.

The collections cover the whole life of Breton fishing. Visitors see the tools of the trade, such as nets, hooks, lines, floats and the heavy gear used on the big trawlers, together with models of boats that show how vessels changed from small sailing craft to steel-hulled factories. Some rooms deal with the different kinds of fishing, from coastal work to long voyages to distant grounds, and others look at the families and communities behind them, with photographs, objects and posters. Rescue boats, which were crucial on a dangerous coast, have their place, and the museum shows a very old lifeboat that carried out rescues in the age of oars and sail.

The highlight for many visitors is outside. Moored at the museum quay is the Hémérica, a side-trawler of the kind that fished from Concarneau in the twentieth century. Visitors can go aboard and see the bridge, the cabins where the crew lived, the engine and the fish hold, which gives a direct understanding of how cramped, noisy and hard daily life was at sea. It is one of the few places where a large working trawler can be explored from the inside, and it appeals to children and adults alike.

The museum is a short walk from the Ville Close, the walled island that is the symbol of Concarneau, and the two sights combine well. The Old Port, the Place de la Liberté and the Église Saint-Germain make up the rest of the town centre, and the Concarneau Aquarium, a marine biology station with tanks of local species, continues the maritime theme. The Musée du Filet, named among the sights, adds a note on net-making. The town's beach at Les Sables Blancs offers a break in good weather.

Allow about an hour and a half. It suits families, maritime history lovers and anyone curious about how fish reach the table. Opening hours change with the season, so check them locally before you go.