I'm sure you'd agree.
The National Museum of Phares et Balises is situated under the towering presence of Créac'h on Ouessant which does seem a little out of the way for such a fabulous collection of pharology (but I liked having the place to ourselves, if truth be told…)
Le Stiff and Creac'h are actually on the island. Le Stiff is the oldest, Creac'h is the most powerful, in Europe even. Nividic is in the sea, the furthest west of all the French lights and taking the longest to build, while Jument stands on a rock beyond the southwestern tip of the island; it took an age to stabilise from its tendency to tremble in heavy weather after its six year build. Kéréon, the last rock lighthouse to be built is offshore some distance to the south east. It once was rated to be the most luxurious of lights for the keepers, and was funded entirely by private finance. Trézien and Kermovan are on the mainland and are featured in their own post, gatekeepers to those who come and go to Ouessant. Les Pierre Noires is way off the island to the south, way off any island, on its own group of shoals, another of the seldom seen icons of French pharology.There they are, on JBH's postcard, like a row of giant chess men. It has been a distinct privilege to become acquainted with these lights, a frustration in not being able to get closer to four of them, particularly Les Pierre Noires where only a distant view has been achieved. Save at night of course. Then they all show.
One arrives at the dock on board the Enez Eussa III (probably, if she is still in service) sailing here from Le Conquet (or Brest), in the north-eastern Port du Stiff, below the hillside that has Phare du Stiff built upon it. If you have been organised you will have a seat in a minibus waiting for you, to take you and your trappings to Lampaul at the other end of the island where you are most likely to be billeted. (One does not bring a vehicle). A few score metres away across the hill from the phare is the Ouessant Tower, a feu in its own right, but built to provide a monitoring station for the western approaches after the Amoco Cadiz disaster brought home the need for greater control in these dangerous and busy waters. The tower is on watch 24/7. We've listened in (on a boater's radio, in Fowey, Cornwall) to ships reporting in as they proceed into and out of La Manche. The tower is not visitable I am afraid; what views they must have up there.
It was this 'listening in', and the romantic notions thus attached regarding the exchange of information ship to shore, that spurred Mrs Melling into action and to the organising of our visit to the island. What Mrs Melling sets her mind to is usually achieved. In this case with some degree of secrecy. I digress, it is hard not to, this was our first island jaunt sans motor and it was absolutely top flight!
Le Stiff is a Vauban tower. 1699. It was originally a coal burning phare. The tower at Fréhel incidentally is a very similar Vauban construct but this one is still active. Two red flashes every twenty seconds, 32 metres high, no longer keepered and I gather in rather a state of disrepair inside so that visits are not possible. It uses a first order Fresnel optic transferred from Créac'h way back in 1888. Vauban? The Marquis de Vauban, a major military architect in 18th century France – we've been to his château and to his grave, he was the kid on the block when it came to fortifying cities towns and ports. Look him up. A real giant!
Ouessant Tower shows a fixed red light and when the cloud comes down it has a quick flashing white light as well. It is 82 metres or 269 ft high so you need something to stop things flying into you, I imagine.
The nameless house is actually a holiday let! You can just squeeze round the corner of the house, but one false step and its a long drop to a watery terminus.
Men Korn is a cardinal-cum-lighthouse. It has one room at the top, so maybe makes it into the order of phares, just. It flashes rapidly (flash flash flash) every five seconds. It marks the approach to the dock as it is not easy to see the entrance from out at sea. There is a distant view of Kéréon on the way in, by the way. Lots more to read about these and the other lights coming up in The Lighthouse Directory, of course.
Acknowledgement to JBH for the group postcard up top. The snaps are mine, taken on the two occasions we have graced Ouessant with our presence.
