golfe de fos

GOLFE DE FOS? Where the hell is that? Well might you ask.

Unlikely to be a holiday destination, that is clear when you see just what the Golfe de Fos accommodates, industry-wise. There are places on the Golfe de Fos where the air is so thick with the odours of oil refining we were inclined to turn off the fuel feed to Berlingo's motor and run on the air! There are signs warning one what to do if klaxons sound or lights thereon flash red – a major incident – more or less telling one to get down on one's knees and pray!

Of course, sown through this fascinating hive of industry, are one or two places of history, style and postcard loveliness. We give such places a wide berth of course, being fans of tankers, bulkers, box boats, wharves and refineries, but … from time to time, going to calm genteel towns and countryside proved to be unavoidable.

The area stretches east from the channel of Le Grand Rhône  — discharging as it does these days down the eastern edge of the Camargue into the sea just a bit south of Port Saint Louis —right across to Port de Bouc, where ships can go through the Canal de Caronte into the Étang de Berre at Martigues. That is the last étang of the Fr. Med. Coast, west-to-east, the littoral gets very lumpy from Port de Bouc onwards, starting with the Chaîne de L'Estaque.  Le Petit Rhône incidentally, flows into the sea at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, after splitting off Le Grand Rhône at Arles. The latter waterway is the shipping route. The barge below is moored at Port Saint Louis and is typical of the craft that go up river right into the heart of France … and Europe!  I am not sure why I am telling you all this. Perhaps because it might just give you a clue as to our interest in all things appertaining to the Rhône.

The Golfe de Fos is a low score zone for phares-authentiques but it does host quite a lot of feux, many of a rather peculiar egg-timer or hour-glass shape.

Port Saint Louis is of historical significance being at the mouth of the river more or less. Vauban showed up in the 17th century and built some defences. To avoid the necessity of river traffic having to go out to sea to get into the Golfe de Fos, there is a canal cut through instead and at either end of that navigation we find feux! Phare de Saint Louis at the end of the eastern môle is as an egg-timer feu, I shall not trouble you with it. At the Port Saint Louis end, a light was added to the Tour Saint Louis which shines straight down the cut, and as said Tour is now a museum we were able to access the roof and inspect the optic at first hand after previous attempts and visits to gain entry had been fruitless, or closed for lunch.

OK it is a feu. But it does have a range of ten nautical miles and sits on top of a 1737 monument historique even though it is not a Vauban tower. It is the only feu we know with a mini crazy-golf course attached (Mme Melling was once again disconsolate that no round was played during this visit, or any other, if I have my way!). The light shines out from a convenient crenallation. It is a quick flasher, white in colour.

I have no information as to why the coin-in-the-slot telescope on the roof was cordoned off at the time of our visit. The museum below the feu has stuffed birds on view, shot or trapped in the Camargue for the appreciation of visitors. And a gallery. The picture across the Camargue salins (salt pans) that concluded the previous post was taken from this tower, in case you were wondering.

At the Pointe de Saint Gervais, in front of Fos-sur-Mer there is a marina but the tower that overlooks this facility is not there for the yachting fraternity but to guide the big ships in and out of the Golfe. Not a beautiful thing at all. Purely functional and somehow granted Monument Historique status. Commissioned in 1980 the St Gervais tower has a focal plane of 45 metres (148ft); It displays seven very quick (strobe-like) flashes every 12 seconds, white, red or green depending on direction. Maximum range? Twenty-five nautical miles (white); twenty-one miles (red or green).

And then we get something half decent, pharelogically speaking at the entrance to the basin and then the Canal de Caronte. The basin is intensely used by oil and gas tankers. The oil installations are to the south, the seaside resort of La Leque holds on the the northern side. And on the southern side we have Fort de Bouc with a proper lantern at its apex. This lighthouse is occulting, two flashes every six seconds, white, red or green depending upon your approach, a maximum range of twelve nautical miles, the red and green aspects shorter of course: nine miles for them.

We viewed this fine bit of history from the La Leque side of the Caronte cut, and on another occasion went round to the Port of Lavéra side to see if we could get in closer. The roads were under repair, there were gates, barriers and cul-de-sacs. We failed. You could practically grab hold of a handful of air and wring the distillate out of it. In emergency: switch off your engine. Then what? Get down I guess and pray hard. The Fort de Bouc lighthouse has been at work since the 1840s. The lantern is on a short round light tower mounted atop the historic Fort which dates from the 13th century.

There is a secondary light on the extreme point of the land; this light displays strobe-like violet flashes on the south side of the entrance to Port-de-Bouc and the Chenal de Caronte. Only the second feu I have come across with a violet light. It has range of eleven nautical miles, and I should think at that distance it would probably appear to be white. Listed as Port de Bouc: Saint Antoine.

The last pictures I include here show the A55 autoroute bridge over the Canal de Caronte viewed from Martigues and the great railway swing bridge over the canal, a bit further west. Impressive, what?
No??
Suit yourself . . .

This travelog simply must stop! This is supposed to be about lighthouses, damn it! But you'll gather we quite like the odd venture into the horrors of the industrial interface… it should calm down for Marseille…