The Acadians of 
Belle-Ile-en-Mer 
Exiled from bountiful lands in Canada, these 
eighteenth-century refugees with New World notions 
reluctantly settled on a rocky French island 
by Naomi E.S. Griffiths 
photographs by Henri Bancaud 
The inhabitants of Belle-Ile-en-Mer trace their ancestry, in part, to settlers 
from what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 
New York Public Library 
Belle-Ile-en-Mer lies in the Bay of 
Biscay, some fifteen miles off the 
southern coast of Brittany. Seven 
miles long and five and one-half 
miles across at its widest point, the 
island runs from northwest to 
southeast across the Gulf of 
Morbihan, acting to protect the 
mainland port of Quiberon. Its wind- 
swept cliffs, sheltered harbors, and 
scattered sandy bays, all free of 
industrial development, have made 
Belle-Ile a tourist attraction. But 
there is more to the island than the 
wild beauty of Apothecary’s Cave 
and the tranquillity of the fishing 
hamlet of Locmaria. There is also a 
complex history. 
For centuries Belle-Ile was a haven 
for pirates. Over many decades, from 
about 1650 to 1760, both the Dutch 
and the English — depending on the 
state of international affairs — fought 
to possess the island in order to 
obtain a naval base on the very 
doorstep of France. And, at a more 
human level, Belle-Ile provided a 
home for a group of colonists exiled 
in 1755 from their lands in the New 
World. These exiles came from 
Acadia — now mainly the Canadian 
provinces of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick — where the imperial 
ambitions of France and England 
met. Although this settlement of 
refugees on Belle-Ile did not flourish 
as its sponsors hoped, it left an 
enduring heritage for the islanders 
and marks an extraordinary episode 
in the story of a resilient and 
independent people: the Acadians. 
International treaties of the 
48 
