Kitesurfing atBaie d'Audierne

The bay changes face from place to place. At Penhors and Tronoën the bottom is all sand and the waves gentler: good ground to progress, where the travelling schools run their lessons — call it intermediate, beginner with an instructor. On the wilder stretches (Tréguennec, the shingle bar) the shorebreak hardens at high tide, the lateral currents build and there's no fixed school and no permanent rescue: this is ground for self-reliant riders. No source calls it an easy solo spot.

Your wind runs from north to south-west. West and south-west, the most frequent, come in with the Atlantic lows — wind, but bigger waves too. In summer the north-west thermal is the play: side-onshore, steady through the afternoon from May to September, it rises around midday and holds till evening. The tide runs the beach: favour low to mid tide, when the sand is wide and the banks are clear; at high tide the shorebreak tightens and the beach shrinks. Thick wetsuit year-round.

Two main accesses: Penhors (free car park off the D156) and Tronoën (via the chapel, car park behind the dune, unmade access). You rig on the sand — launching and landing from the car parks is banned. In summer, riding sits between La Torche and Tronoën, clear of the swim zones; at Pors Carn you exit through the left-hand channel then ride 300 m offshore. The lagoons behind the Tréguennec dunes are off-limits all year (protected area).

On amenities, it's spare and natural. Tronoën has a shower, toilets and free parking, with a crêperie about 1.5 km away; Penhors has its car park and seasonal toilets. No shop or fixed school on the beach: teaching runs through travelling schools of southern Finistère (Kite Breizh Skol, KitesurfEvolution). The beach is watched only in summer, in the afternoon — outside those windows, you're on your own with the sea.