23.4.20

two dark lights

ONE WAY TO GET ALONG to the next half decent lighthouse – from Sète shall we say, would be to go by canal. No, we have not had that pleasure — but the Sète-Rhône Canal looks quite enticing, given that it is a canal that for a lot of the time is routed through étangs rather than terra firma, and yet has banks, a towpath even.

Michelin Atlas enthusiasts can see the route of this generous waterway (on pp322 and 303, current edition). After the route has crossed the Étang de Thau, where caution was thrown to the wind and the link with the Canal du Midi was across open water, we are now back into the discipline of a contained canal, from Sète, through Frontignan, to Palavas-les-Flots, La Grande-Motte and on to Aigues-Mortes, and beyond. It is at Aigues-Mortes that I bring your attention to the first of the dark lights to which the title of this post alludes.

I am not going to give you a Michelin Green Guide entry here. Suffice to say that some royal cove called  Louis decided to run his Crusades Tours initiative from Aigues-Mortes. It has been a honeypot ever since. To make finding the place a bit easier for returning maritime revellers he ordered a lighthouse (probably a fire) on top of the Tour de Constance, operational from about 1248. Ships had to negotiate a waterway this Louis bloke had had dug, up to A-M, which was a walled town, as it is to this day. Jean Benoît Héron has originated a cutaway diagram of the tower to illuminate the internal structure of the edifice, but it hasn't shown a light for many a year. I include it just to confirm that this coast was once served by lighthouses of royal patronage.

I think you can probably get a ticket to visit the Tour de Constance. We haven't done it: I dislike trailing round a place in a crocodile while somebody gives out the gen in a language I have never had the wit or resolve to master.  (That would be any language, Mme Melling asserts). I blame my school…
Moving quickly on, the second dark light featured in this post used to shine out at Le Grau-du-Roi, the royal waterway that eventually became the standard seafarers' route up to A-M, after Louis's canal silted up: this Grau was dug and straightened by royal command also, I gather.



The lighthouse was built in 1829 but has not shone out since 1869. Forty years is not much of a lifespan for a lighthouse, what went wrong one wonders. It is some 19 metres tall with a lantern and gallery, centred on a keeper's house. Le Grau-du-Roi is a small port, and a growing holiday resort. The lighthouse was replaced in 1869 by the Phare de l'Espiguette, (coming next, patience, please) but the old tower has been preserved. Can't work out why they don't stick a light up there though, and finish the preservation…

And it looks handsome, I have to own – far better than the proliferation of standard concrete and post feux that mark the entrances to rivers, canals and marinas down here. Le G-du-R is nice though, well the old bit is, and there is still an active fishing fleet here, swing bridges and bloody bull running in season (and I do mean bloody). You probably have to come this way if you are off to visit the next lighthouse in my itinerary, so you might as well stop off here and mooch down to the jetty end for coastal views of disturbing urbanisation.

Mme Melling tells me some of these developments are 'award winning'. Hmmm. Not winning any awards from me … The view to the right, from the jetty: La Grande Motte; the view to the left: the jetties of Port Camargue, the back side of which you will have to pass through to get to a proper lighthouse… at last!

I am indebted to Jean Benoît Héron for his illustrations included herewith;  the photographs are mine own.