This was the 'Mosquito Coast' before Mission Racine in the 1960s came along and imposed on these low flat coastal regions, half a dozen all new holiday resort towns. Neat, tidy, lots of parking for boats and motors, taming and extending natural water features into marina horrors, set around with lots of soulless seaside villa developments as well as rather awful sea-style apartment blocks and associated infrastructure. The étangs along the coast were tamed. Natural environment? Minimised. The beaches are extensive but as they are not tidal they have a somewhat unwashed dusty or gritty feel, featureless and are often backed by vast sandy car parks. Ugh.
For some reason we have sampled these beaches – because it was hot and we wanted to swim and indulge the junior, etc. – when holidaying further inland, where the real heart of the Langeudoc-Roussillon region is still going strong. The coast is about as far from an exhilarating littoral experience as you could get, in my humble O. See right. Unless of course you are heavily into gin-palace boating, the jet ski, kite-surf mentality, nude sea bathing and cigarette butt sands. There is nothing for the phare sighted here…
Look up Mission Racine if you want to know how this coast was transformed into the French answer to the Costas of Spain. I'd give you a link but I doubt you'd thank me…
But there is that bit of rockiness at Cap Leucate. On the tip of the Cape is a sémaphore – so the lighthouse is relegated to round the corner, nearer to Port Leucate. From a distance it can be mistaken for another nearby telecommunications tower whose metallic dome catches the sun: looks a bit like a lighthouse, but isn't. The distant view up top of this post is from Port La Nouvelle. Sans telephoto. The one above: with a later, more capable box brownie…
Cap Leucate, the phare, is a modest construction built in 1950, first lit in 1951, before Mission Racine got going. As it sits atop the cliff headland it sports a focal plane of 66 metres, or 217ft if you have not metricised. CL displays deux white flashes every ten seconds from the nineteen metre tall tower, with a range of twenty nautical miles. Huelse has an uncluttered postcard view that shows the layout of the station clearly, should you be intrigued by such detail. You will find it on the Chemin du Phare on the north side of Leucate-Plage. I understand it may still be keepered but a visit to the top of the tower is not on the cards. Thanks to JBH for his optimistic rendition of Cap Leucate. Not a postcard this . . .
Port La Nouvelle, on the other hand, although suffering from its own anonymous sprawl of holiday villas to the south of its port – has got industry! Ships come and go. There is a cement works!! An oil terminal! We have been there by train, from Narbonne! There was stuff here before Mission Racine started the rot.
The port is based on the outlet to the sea from the Étang de Bages et de Sigean (the image above shows the two jetty lights). The aformentioned étang and its associated saltings, is very much to the family-Smith-Mellings' liking. Nothing much doing with respect to the subject of this blog though, but we are fond of the feux that guard the entrance to the river, so…
The red and white striped Jetée Sud feux has style don't you think, for a mere feu? Love them blue railings also. I have recently discovered that it is an antérieur light. The postérieur is almost up at the cement works, near the fly-over, unseen by us. You sort of line them up, coming in after dark, to avoid bumping the jetties. Range– fourteen natical miles, height 18 metres built in 1950 and with a quick white flashing characteristic. The Jetée Nord has a range of four nautical miles, and occults every four seconds, with a green aspect.
We have been here a number of times. It was for the ships essentially when we had the son-and-heir with us. He was (and still is) a bit ship obsessed . . . We came by train once as mentioned earlier, as the railway crosses the edge of the etang on a long causeway with excellent views of salt flats, lagoons and the various blibs and blobs of what would have been islands once. It was then I think that we spotted what must be one of the least peaceful Gîtes de France. I leave you with our snap of this 'des-res' (very close to the feu postérieur, so not all bad) as well as more general landscapes of Port la Nouvelle… an odd corner of the Mediterranean…
The red and white striped Jetée Sud feux has style don't you think, for a mere feu? Love them blue railings also. I have recently discovered that it is an antérieur light. The postérieur is almost up at the cement works, near the fly-over, unseen by us. You sort of line them up, coming in after dark, to avoid bumping the jetties. Range– fourteen natical miles, height 18 metres built in 1950 and with a quick white flashing characteristic. The Jetée Nord has a range of four nautical miles, and occults every four seconds, with a green aspect.
We have been here a number of times. It was for the ships essentially when we had the son-and-heir with us. He was (and still is) a bit ship obsessed . . . We came by train once as mentioned earlier, as the railway crosses the edge of the etang on a long causeway with excellent views of salt flats, lagoons and the various blibs and blobs of what would have been islands once. It was then I think that we spotted what must be one of the least peaceful Gîtes de France. I leave you with our snap of this 'des-res' (very close to the feu postérieur, so not all bad) as well as more general landscapes of Port la Nouvelle… an odd corner of the Mediterranean…