charente antérieur, postérieur

YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS AGO we were trying to find somewhere or something or other, and we drove down a straight but narrow little road on the drained marshlands adjoining the north bank of the river Charente estuary…  and came across Soumard Antérieur Feu. And thought it just a wonderful bit of architectural and maritime licence! I snapped it. My picture is still the official representation of Soumard in the Lighthouses of France App. Even though it isn't a lighthouse, obviously. On that first occasion we didn't fuss over phares so did not press on to try and get closer to the Postérieur to Soumard's Antérieur. We undertook that adventure only a year or four ago, when we specifically made time to sort these minor lights out, before checking into our cheapo hotel at Rochefort. These two stand in fields, not on the river bank but set quite well back. We like 'em!

Not lighthouses, these, but safety navigation lights for getting into and out of the Charente river. But just look at that postérieur! It so aspires to be a lighthouse! What imagination, what style! It even has a watch room. Anyway, they work together. They are replacements dating back to 1948, the postérieur having a focal plane of 21 metres and a quick-flashing red light, intensified on the range line. The structure itself is about 23 metres tall and is constructed out of concrete. The smaller antérieur feu has a focal plane of eight metres, also with a quick-flashing red light, similarly intensified on the range line. Overall the titchy light is nine metres tall and also made of concrete, with a small modern lantern. The original feux here were destroyed by German troops in August 1944.

On the south side of the Charente river-mouth we found another pair of lights, antérieur and postérieur in Port-des-Barques, as well as locating Fort Lupin up river, guarding the strategic 18th and 19th century naval river port of Rochefort; the spring at Les Fontaines, where ships would take on their water supplies before setting sail. They did this to avoid grounding in the shallows of the tidal river from Rochefort. We were tempted by the causeway to the Île Madame but were unsure of the tides so left that for another time.

So these two feux, in Port-des-Barques, also work as a pair to mark the tricky entrance to the river, showing isophase green lights (four seconds off four seconds on). The postérieur light has a range of eleven nautical miles while the front light has nine. Green? starboard (Soumard feux are red, you will recall).

But these are not phares — so why am I telling you all this? Because, dear reader we found this area intriguing and redolent, as we imagined the pride of the French navy in the days of sail and three-deckers, passing out from these points to face the might of Albion!