phares: my rationale

This is the introduction to an occasional series I have produced that attempts to address an ongoing fixation I seem to be suffering from with the lighthouses of La France, (and other places, if truth be told) which my family have been kind enough to indulge me in at various times and places.

So let us get one or two things straight, right away. Here below is my carefully distilled definition of what a lighthouse is. It may not be yours but it is the typology that I adhere to, and by applying it I can dispense with all those rather dull lights on posts, masts and pylons, as well as beacons, cardinals, buoys and other markers of the sea. All these have their place, a few get honourable mention, but they are not generally accommodated by this post because they are not lighthouses, as defined by my typology. 

Some of the aforementioned posts, masts, pylons, markers, cardinals and beacons may have a number of the above characteristics, but none of them will have accommodation for keepers. Neither are they likely to be of historical significance, which I left out of the panel above but is considered to be a characteristic of its lighthouses by the French Bureau des Phares et Balises I understand.

Be under no misapprehension: in this blog, if I consider a light to be a phare – then it will be presented as a phare. If it seems to have the characteristics outlined above, looks like a phare, performs like a phare (or clearly once did) then I shall deem it to be indeed a lighthouse, or a former lighthouse.

Friends and acquaintances will also probably be aware of my fascination with phares that has been much enhanced  by the wonderful work of Jean Benoît Héron, French technical illustrator par excellence, whose magnificent watercolour elevations of lighthouses I have been attempting to collect for many years now. I am taking the liberty of sharing some of these with you, at risk of the copyright police feeling my collar, I know, but I honestly have in the past attempted to contact JBH about his work, but without success I am afraid. Several times I have tried. No response. In French and English. Nothing.

As I constructed this blog purely for my own pleasure and with a very limited circulation (my public is a distinguished group of persons, but I am in no doubt – it is distinctly 'finite' in number, let's not kid ourselves) I hope that if I am in copyright infringement I will be treated leniently, as all I seek to do is educate and enlighten, and I endeavour always to credit the artist, as and when. 

Ditto the quoted data snaffled from The Lighthouse Directory.  I give due recognition to that source too, with humble thanks etc. I trust that will suffice. And I am happy to take advice on these matters if someone feels I am straying from the straight and narrow. But I've done it now so there you go…

I hope the lighthouse posts listed right may inform, amuse, kill some time, whatever.

Oh yes, I should add here: I may, from time to time, add new information (unlikely) and new images (more likely) to the posts contained herein. Y'see, I produced this blog during 2020 when lock downs and isolations from Covid-19 were in play, when travel to France was largely precluded, and when chances of adding to and extending entries have been limited… but already I have stuck in new pictures of Chauveau, Baleines, Baleineaux and the lights of Les Sables d'Olonne, after our one and only visit to La France in the blighted year. I am still up for improving things where I can… And of course, any glaring errors that my readership may find will be addressed… or dismissed, depending on my mood, and the nature of the perceived inaccuracy. 

I reproduce below an early Héron lighthouse grouping. So here is my first acknowledgement: thanks to JBH for this portent of all your good work on the lighthouse front. Monsieur: I salute you.