On their way to Le Rhun, most of our visitors cross the Terenez Bridge. It is the imposing cable stay bridge that crosses the River Aulne between Argol and Le Faou.
This is the last bridge across the Aulne before it flows out into the Bay of Brest. The next bridges upstream are at Chateaulin where there are two road crossings and a pedestrian bridge. The river itself is tidal up as far as Chateaulin. Thereafter the river is controlled with a series of locks and weirs and forms part of the 385km long Nantes-Brest Canal. We will look at that another time.
The original bridge was a concrete suspension bridge built in 1925. It was damaged in World War II built rebuilt in 1951 using the same towers. These decayed over time with the concrete suffering from ‘concrete cancer’, and the bridge closed in 2011.
The new bridge was started in 2007 and competed in 2011 at a cost of €35 million. Soon after, the old bridge was dismantled. All that remains is a small stretch on the Argol side which serves as a viewing platform for the new structure.
There are pedestrian walkways on both sides of the new bridge. We like to park in the car park at one end and walk across. We recommend this to our guests too. The Terenez Café https://tzcafe.eatbu.com/ is an inviting café bar at the other end as a reward for the crossing the river. We like to admire the views of the bridge and the river and treat ourselves to a cold beer, a refreshing ice cream or a mouthwatering burger. The Terenez Cafe is an ideal spot, so we always stop for an obligatory photograph!
There’s a walkway on the other side of the bridge for the walk back, ensuring excellent views both upstream and downstream.