île d'aix

We didn't go out to the Île d'Aix primarily to tick off the lighthouse there but to explore this historic island. This is where Napoleon awaited his transport and final exile to St Helena after Waterloo. The island has a small population, about 200 persons I believe (dogs and cats extra), and it is very pleasant but not exactly dramatic. The Vauban fort at the southern end, and where the ferry puts you down, is interesting if somewhat marred by the insensitive plonking down of two white towers which can only be forgiven for spoiling the view because they are feux. 

These towers have been doing the business since 1889 (well, the original tower has); the focal plane is 24 metres which is about 79ft, giving out a flash every five seconds, white or red depending on where you are coming from. The white light reaches out 24 nautical miles, the red 20. The towers are 17 metres (56 ft) tall.

In 1906 the second tower was built, a twin to the first. This tower has a gallery but no lantern; instead it carries a curved red screen that creates a narrow red sector. In other words, the light from the lighthouse shines in part  through this red screen. Huelse has a historic postcard view as you'd expect.  As a pair they have been granted Monument Historique status. Jolly good of course, but not sure why these two rather than some others still waiting on this recognition.

The island is a crescent-shaped about three kilometres long and nowhere more than about 700 metres wide. It lies three kilometres, give or take, west of Fouras, on the mainland. The island is accessible year-round by passenger ferry from Fouras, with extra boats coming and going in the summer. I think (but it is a while since we took this trip across) we had some oysters out there at a lovely white oyster shack [Mme Melling confirms that we did indeed do this]. Some of the beaches are almost solid oyster shell. So there is a lot of them about.

Are these towers a lighthouse? Not really, IMHO, but as you can see, JBH perceives them as part of the overall genre so I accept his variation to what I'd call a true lighthouse, because he is a Frenchman with a long standing association with the variations, exceptions and eccentricities endemic to Fr.pharology. Some feux are, after all, as important as what might have been, under different circumstances, a full blown phare. Île d'Aix probably fits into this category. Its range certainly suggests lighthouse status, but the lack of keeper accommodation aligns the installation more readily with the feu typology. Debatable. Don't have a sleepless night over the issue, just accept that there are  special cases and exceptions that perhaps stretch the definitions a bit…

I leave you with an evening snap of carrelets, an ingenious way of fishing the French are fond of in these parts… and a beach view with another feu on top of a distant Napoleonic fort, for the record. Can't see it? Neither could I.

The picture of the second tower, with red screen showing, was taken by the son-and-heir, otherwise pics are mine and the postcard view is JBH's.