Guiding Lights - the region's lighthouses

“To The Lighthouse” has a romantic ring to it, so we discover some of the slender sentinels found around our coastline.

The wayward coastline of Nouvelle-Aquitaine extends for several hundred kilometres, so it’s hardly surprising that along the way lie all manner of potential hazards for mariners. Local fishermen obviously know exactly where perils lurk beneath the Atlantic waves, while others seeking safe passage look to a succession of day-marks and lighthouses to aid their coastal navigation. In fact, no two lighthouses are quite alike, since their individuality is what enables mariners in unfamiliar waters to identify them rapidly and accurately.

Their respective paint schemes, for example, are chosen specifically to help mariners recognise them during daylight. An all-white lighthouse will stand out clearly against dark surroundings or a background of fields or woodland, while bold red and white stripes will help identify a lighthouse with a light background such as cliffs.

See our factfile panel for examples of how variations in beams, etc., aid navigation during darkness hours.

Phare de Chassiron, Île d’Oléron

© Living Magazine / Roger Moss

Regardless of whether you’re at sea or on land, you’ll notice some pretty extreme variations in height, a key factor designed to take into account the curvature of the earth. Obviously, the higher the beam is projected above mean high water, the greater the distance from which it will be visible to mariners. On the other hand, if the light is too high it’s possible that someone passing just a kilometre or two offshore might not be able to see it at all. This explains why we frequently come across shorter lighthouses on cliff-top locations, while taller lighthouses can be seen rising defiantly from among the waves. Some of the installations have been braving the elements on their wild, exposed sites for centuries, and many have something in common: they’re fascinating places to visit. With that in mind, we decided to look at some of the more impressive and accessible examples in Charente-Maritime.

Phare du Quai Valin

© Living Magazine / Roger Moss

Perhaps the most familiar of our lighthouses are those sited around La Rochelle’s Vieux Port. The tallest is the Phare du Quai Valin (or ‘le phare Blanc’) a pure white octagonal creation rising from among the facades lining the quayside. Constructed in 1852, its height was increased from 18m to 24m just three years later, and the light was originally powered by vegetable (and then mineral) oil. Electrified in 1937, the lighthouse now has a Monument Historique (MH) listing, as does its contemporary and near-neighbour the Phare du Gabut, whose original height of 14m was boosted to 23m in 1963. Bold red and white bands make it a prominent feature, which when aligned (‘in transit’) with the Phare du Quai Valin it guides mariners entering port. Beside it is the famous Tour Saint-Nicolas, from whose summit you can gaze out to the slender seaward approach channel. Visible in the distance beside the entry point of the Les Minimes marina is the outline of la tour Richelieu, constructed in 1915.

Read the full article in the April May 2020 edition of Living Magazine...