Skip to content
Mixroutes
Port-aux-Français
Scientific Research Base in TAAF, France

Port-aux-Français

Port-aux-Français is the main settlement of the Kerguelen Islands, and of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, in the south Indian Ocean.

Plan a trip to Port-aux-Français→
Get in

Getting to Port-aux-Français

Getting in requires careful planning, as the islands are not easy to get to. There is no air service, and only a small landing pier at Port-aux-Français. Small cruise ships very occasionally call here – check the itineraries of those visiting Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Antarctic cruises almost never come this way, as it's so far off their usual routes.

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Port-aux-Français is the landing point

    It's by Morbihan Bay, the best shelter to be had in these windy islands.

  2. 02
    Baie
Do

Things to do

Watching wildlife is why you came. And you won't have time for much else, as the ship needs to sail on in a day or two.

Eat

Where to eat

Tourists are fed on the ship of arrival, so they should expect the same fare they have consumed since Réunion. Meanwhile les pafiens ashore are eagerly opening the jars of cranberry sauce and other goodies that have just arrived on the ship, to garnish their reindeer steaks.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.