SÈTE IS BEAUTIFULLY SITUATED. It is both on the coast and on the Étang de Thau. It faces East North and South, and if you go up Mont Saint Clair it faces West as well. Stuff goes on in Sète.
Sète has extensive port facilities, bridges and a grand canal right through the town, a wide range of markets, posh shops, galleries, fine houses, parks, ferries to Africa, France's biggest fishing fleet on the Mediterranean, boat yards, container facilities, gas and oil refineries, industry both squalid and modern, immediate access to extensive beaches, good road and rail links, fantastic views from the top of the hill, steep streets, mean streets, grand boulevards, street art, sprawls of new build villas, towers of social housing, glass bottomed boats, a succession of street markets on every day of the week, restaurants of all sorts and sizes, croissants and well filled sandwiches, an abundance of tourists, extensive sea-view cemeteries, ships old and new, tricky parking and … a lighthouse. Almost two in fact. A bit of alright is Sète. A bit like a junior Marseille in fact.
Le Phare de Mont Saint Clair is the shining light. So influential is this phare upon the good seafaring folk of Sète that some even choose lighthouse memorial headstones for their last resting place at the foot of this mighty lantern. Stéphane Bossis provides the elevation (left).
Well, actually the lighthouse is rather modest in height – but as you can see, the tower makes up for it by its attitude and presence. It was constructed in 1903. The reason it is not over tall is because it is up on the Mont, giving it a focal plane of 93 metres or if you must have it in old money, 305ft. The white flash it sends out every five seconds can be seen a full twenty-nine nautical miles away. The lighthouse is twenty-three metres tall and as you can see, is an octagonal masonry tower with a majestic lantern and gallery. A Monument Historique, of course, need you ask? Not open to the public though, which is a pity: Sète doesn't usually miss a trick when it comes to getting the punters in. It is the study on the left above that adorns the French Lighthouse App, by yours most truly. A lot of folk miss it though. It has to be sought . . .
Down on the seafront we can enjoy another fine tower out on the môle. It is referred to as a feu but in my book it achieves lighthouse status by its noble stature and clean lines. This is the Môle St Louis Feu, completed in 1948 on a station dating back to 1684. The focal plane is 34 metres (112ft) exhibiting four flashes every fifteen seconds, white or red depending where you are observing it from. It stands 31 metres tall (101ft) but with a nautical range of only seven miles. Shame! Huelse (remember him?) has an historic postcard view. The Lighthouse Directory states that the port of Sète was built in the late 1600s as the Mediterranean entrance of the Canal du Midi. The Môle Saint Louis is the historic breakwater mole sheltering the port and the canal entrance; today there is also an outer breakwater to the southeast. The original tower was rebuilt a few years later when the mole was extended; that tower served until a tall lighthouse was built in 1861 but that was destroyed during World War II. The present lighthouse is a copy. A good one I think. Again there is no public access to the interior but you can go all round it on the môle. Lovely job!
To finish the entrance to the port in style Sète has constructed another épi and adorned it with no less than four (4!) feux, all of different design. I am showing you three of these: the fourth is a mere white post with a green top, not worthy of record unless you are sailing in at that end, in which case you'd best be aware of it lest you wreck on the concrete blocks that are scattered about this well endowed breakwater.
Sète Èpi Dellon extrémité est: is of unknown date, a concrete tripod 17 metres tall, isophase red light, four seconds on and four seconds off, obviously. A range of eleven nautical miles.
Sète Èpi Dellon: constructed in 1896, 19 metres tall although some say 21 metres tall, (would someone just get out there and measure it?) giving out two red flashes every six seconds with a range of only three nautical miles.
Sète Brise-Lames: 1869: this is the original feu before the breakwater was extended, and one of those wonderful cast iron kits seen elsewhere. With a focal plane of fifteen metres, this tourelle shows three red flashes every twelve seconds. It too has a range of only three nautical miles, and is not on any preservation order listing I've come across which it should be! When it was assembled here this lighthouse marked the north end of the outer breakwater. By the 1890s, said breakwater had been extended eastward, so the lighthouse now stands in the elbow where this newer section joins the original. The breakwater (épi) is not connected to the shore which is why I cannot supply you with close ups of these three feux. Well done Sète for keeping them all, up and running!
The photos are all mine, the illustration of Mont Saint Clair comes from the desk of Stéphane Bossis and the information concerning the lights comes in part, and with corrections, from The Lighthouse Directory.
The sun doesn't always shine in Sète. And in common with most places with water access in the S of F, it is beset by an over subscription of powered boats which are parked up all over the place, compromising the aspirations of those who would try to capture the spirit of a location without all that damned clutter.
