les barges, la potence, l'armandèche, le grouin du cou

THIS POST HAS BEEN PRODUCED LARGELY WITHOUT the benefit of the internet (our service providers having been rather less than snappy in fixing a fault, of late). The post features four phares worthy of the name, and which I introduce via three postcard renditions Jean Benoît Héron has made of the Sables d'Olonne lights. Le Grouin has not been afforded such treatment. Thanks JBH, notwithstanding. All other pictures here are by your correspondent excepting the view of the town from La Jetée de Saint Nicolas which was kindly provided by Mme Melling. 

NB: The picture below indicates a tower as being La Potence: incorrectly I'm afraid, that's not it at all. I should be correcting the image I know, but at the moment I am busy busy busy… yes don't tell me, nautical is misspelt in the l'Armandèche cameo below, as well… Mistyped rather than misspelt; it can happen to anybody with fingers as stumpy as mine…

AND IF YOU WANT MORE on these lights (can you ever have too much: I have rather indulged you by including the complexities of the Sables harbour approaches, without any explanation at all as to how they all work together…because I am not sure if I really know… I've got a reasonable idea you understand, but would not consider myself to be an authority on the matter). All I can do is refer you to The Lighthouse Directory. It won't help that much, but at least you can pick up some of Huelse's vintage postcard goodies, more information etc., given out in that somewhat quirky lighthouse directory style (it's American y'see). In case you were wondering, yes, the Jetée de Sables feu does lean like that… you'd think they would have corrected the list, but no, there it is — and there it has been for some years we gather…

INTERLUDE: A bit further on down the coast is our final lighthouse of this post, at La Tranche, before I report on La Rochelle. I include a brief cameo regarding it:

Thanks to Jean Benoît Héron for his three postcard representations of the three phares that we can find on this post. Le Grouin du Cou has been drawn by JBH but I've failed to find any reproduction of his work outside his histoire(s) de phares where it looks like this (left). 2020 footnote: Hopes of improving our acquaintance with Les Sables in the springtime were dashed by the first national lock down in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Our ferry was cancelled and we were confined to barracks. So it was that Sables provided us with our last stop en route back to the UK after our one-and-only foray to Sablet in the dark year of 2020. Autumn. Dusk. No chance taken to revisit Les Barges (I clean forgot) but at least a chance to walk the eastern mole at Les Sables and see the outer lights at work. And examine the leaning tower of the Jetée des Sables…
why don't they fix it?

I imagine we shall be this way again, even if the hotel costs more than most we use, and no parking fgs!

2021 footnote: We did indeed come this way again, but this time we patronised the seaward side of the port in the area known as La Chaume. Better hotel and a bit out of the push-and-shove of Les Sables proper. Preferred. Better still, with more lighthouse action to go at, or to be perfectly accurate, more feu action. We walked the jetée de St Nicolas, Mme Melling narrowly avoiding catching a wave breaking over the pathway near the light; we noted the limited and enticing view of l'Armandèche and enjoyed seeing the l'Ormeau aligned lights again (they go off-on-off-on-off-on currently both day and night it seems). When we left to trek north to Roscoff after our overnight in the splendid Les Embruns hotel we paid an early morning visit to Armandèche and spotted Les Barges in the middle distance… and as I opined in the 2020 footnote: 

'I imagine we shall be this way again even if the hotel costs more than most we use…'

— and the parking is a test of resolve, patience……

…… and something like replacing a champagne cork back into the bottle from whence it came! 

Mme. Melling will understand what I mean… getting out was easier, but getting in… don't ask… or I might remark, don't go there. But I think we may, if we are spared…