Calling all Francophiles and golfers! Did you know that you haven’t missed your chance to golf with General Charles de Gaulle? Not only that, you can play golf while watching him float on his back in his bathtub! That’s gotta be on someone’s bucket list, somewhere. No? Not appealing, you say? What if I said Charles de Gaulle was rock and the bathtub was the Atlantic Ocean? Much better, eh.
Charles de Gaulle in the Bath is actually a natural phenomenon – it is a double peaked islet just over 1.5km from the shore of Cape Cornwall in England. The islet, properly known as The Brisons, is really two rocks, one 22m high and one 27m high. Someone, somewhere, noted that they look like the General and ever since then, that image has stuck. The Brisons form the last bit of a reef that remains underwater for most stages of the tide. With much of the reef continually hidden, this really gives Charles a chance to stand out. But it also means that throughout history, that reef has been the cause of numerous shipwrecks and deaths.
Today, Cape Cornwall is a lovely place at which to take a ramble or play a round of golf. There are also several places to rent, including cute stone cottages, so you can make it your base from which to explore the surrounding area. If landscapes and rocky shorelines are your thing, I definitely recommend Cape Cornwall. If golfing is your thing, I have no idea if the golfing is good but how can it not be if Charles de Gaulle is your view?
I was lucky enough to WWOOF on a great community farm about a mile and a half from here. Would love to return one day to walk the South West Coast Path.
oh nice! and yes, walking the South West Coast Path would be phenomenal. This whole area is so beautiful!
Ha! The more I stare at it, the more I start seeing a face sticking out of the water! Someone definitely had a sense of humour!
Love the highland cow, hope he doesn’t get hit by any golf balls!
Ever since I learned it was “Charles de Gaulle” that is all I see! I can’t NOT see him now, haha