The entrance to the Loire is guarded on its south bank by a sémaphore-like building of 1861, which is what I think it once was, with a light on top: namely Pointe Saint Gildas. Nothing flamboyant about this feu, I can tell you, but it is sited in a rather fine position and high enough to present very long views of the approaches to St Nazaire and the Loire. The area surrounding the establishment is peppered with Todt constructions from ww2 such as bunkers, associated magazines, gun control centres, and defensive machine gun emplacements; all part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. The light was first mounted on this building in 1941 by German chaps so it was clearly important to the Kriegsmarine.
Pointe St Gildas is a scintilator. It flickers like mad, in three shades even. There is no lantern worthy of the name and you can't climb the squat tower out of season unless you are sporting a uniform of the correct pedigree and have the appropriate keys to gain access. No matter, the views from the grounds around, which host a rather colourful collection of retired buoys, cardinals beacons etc, are very pleasant and the area clearly gets a good stream of visitors in due season.
- A bit further down the coast and round the corner is the holiday resort of Pornic. Jean Benoît Héron has not been down to Pornic, or if he has, he seems to have been a bit sniffy about the phare that graces the port as a subject for his muse. Perhaps he had had enough of those standard square towers attached to one end or the other of a anonymous bungalow (or the middle in some instances – where normally a front door would be situated) for the keeper. I can imagine his disdain, having no doubt just finished his illustration of the Pointe des Dames feu over on Île Noirmoutier… ‘not another of those…’ he probably thought… and went off to drink some Muscadet with his platter of seafood instead. Whatever, as far as I can discover JBH has not graced his output with a likeness of this'un so you'll have to put up with my images. Anyway, I quite like it (but as for Pornic, the place, well, only out of season if you don't mind, sweet and characterful as it may be…) so here are the facts and my images to fill the gap in your knowledge:
- The Pointe de la Noëveilland Phare at Pornic, to give it the full name, started to brighten the scenery from 1846. It sports a focal plane of 23 metres (75ft give or take) from which emanates a white, red, or green light, depending on direction, occulting four times every twelve seconds. The tower is only fifteen metres tall (49ft), apparently built of limestone, and clearly supports a lantern and gallery, whilst being attached for safe keeping to the front of a keeper's house. Huelse as ever has a historic postcard view. Good man. The lighthouse was originally even shorter, only eleven metres (36 ft) in height; it was hastily extended in 1882. In 1886 the keeper's house was also expanded (an extra bedroom perhaps? not sure why The Lighthouse Directory feels obliged to advise us of this domestic footnote).
- Pornic phare stands near a large marina or boat-park (ugh) on the west side of the entrance to the harbour of Pornic, which is on the Baie de Bourgneuf, about 30 kilometres south of Saint-Nazaire. Sometimes the phare is open to climb. Before you ask… no. We haven't. But we have had some good fish lunches in Pornic, and have even been there on bikes, way back in the last century… good oysters here I seem to recall…
- The flag? That's the flag of the Société Nationale des Sauveteurs en Mer (lifeboats) flying from the tower, it probably was a flag day.
