chassiron is on île d'oléron

We had an eastertide holiday on the Île d'Oleron in 2004. The island has a link to the land by a long bridge, just like Île de Ré. Our holiday rental was in the fishing port of La Cotinière. Harbour, boat repair yards, fish market, beaches and even a group of harbour lights or feux. And on the northern tip of the island sits Chassiron, overlooking the fish pounds. This lighthouse complies with what most folk conjure up in their minds as to what a lighthouse should look like when visited on holiday. It gets climbed a lot. We climbed it. The views are wide, the gallery a pleasant place to linger after the climb. I can't find any reference to Chassiron having Monument Historique status. Why ever not?

The first lighthouse operated from 1685 onwards (fires in braziers) and this one from 1836. Chassiron has a focal plane of 50 metres which is about 164ft. The signal is a white flash every ten seconds. The tower itself is 46 metres tall, a round stone tower with lantern and gallery, rising from the centre of the circular keeper accommodation. The present lighthouse carries a historic hexagonal Fresnel lens, one of the oldest 1st order lenses in use. Huelse has a historic postcard view of the lighthouse before the black and white daymark was added. Beyond the fish ponds is a cardinal called, by the French at least, Phare d'Antioche (which it clearly isn't) and that has a light too, a scintillating show. The red painted concrete block in my picture above is a ww2 bunker, stuck out there amongst the neglected fish pounds, which folk wander with buckets at low tide seeking and collecting the shellfish that proliferate.

As for the feux of La Cotinière, well they are all about getting the fishing boats into the harbour with antérieurs and postérieurs, but I won't detain you with the minutiae of which does what as it is complex and would almost certainly be beyond your interest. OK, it is somewhat beyond mine. Who cares, they are feux, not phares — and the island has quite a few feux — but only one phare. And a very nice island it is too…

Photographs by me, Chassiron poster top right by Jean Benoît Héron, the one I tried to buy in Roscoff but was refused because then the shop wouldn't have one to sell as they would have sold it to me. I kid you not. Shop is no longer trading. Surprise……