so far not sighted: around toulon

BEYOND LA CIOTAT things get a little bit confused. There are ten or twelve right proper lighthouses to wax lyrical about, but they are all, almost without exception, and so far, unsighted. We haven't done all that much coasting down here either. Add to that, the lighthouses tend to be a little less accessible to the foot soldiers of pharology. One needs one's GP! (Gin Palace).

I should probably be calling it a day with the Le Planier posting, but I can't just sit idly by and let my less informed public think that that is it, there can be no more phares to come. Very far from it —there are phares and fine phares right up to the Italian borders. But I/we have no experience of them, 'in the field' as it were.

But to complete my progress from distant Dunkerque, in theory at least, I intend to bring to your attention, in any way I can that avoids using other enthusiasts' photos, these few remaining watchers over the sea. There are no soaring towers in this lot. In fact some are decidedly squat. I shall call upon Jean Benoît Héron's fine elevations when there is a rendition available from that source, but even he has seemingly not got down here as much as he might: there are rather a lot of omissions in his catalogue after Toulon (although JBH has done a full set for Corsica. He obviously holidays there…).

We've spent a day in Toulon on two occasions. In a naval base of this size you'd expect a few feux and the feu freak is well catered for. What is more, there has been a programme of updating so that most of the quaint little tourelles have been replaced by characterless fibreglass hourglass style beacons with LED lamps and flashes. Dull beyond words.

On both our visits we took a boat trip round the inner and outer harbours. No lighthouses were seen. Lots of ships of a naval disposition. In 1995 the aircraft carrier Foch was in there; in 2007 in was the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. That's progress for you.

Le Grand Rouveau comes before Toulon travelling west to east as this progress is styled. On an island. See it? Under the red blob I have added to this 1987 IGN 1:100 000 map extract, hoping that using such an ancient map will reduce my fine or custodial sentence, should the copyright Stasi get on my case.

Le Grand Rouveau has been on stream since 1863 and was designed by a fellow called Léonce Reynaud. I have no idea of his pedigree, a subject for further research I suspect. He made a good job of it if this image is anything to go by. The phare has a focal plane of 45 metres and displays a white light, occulting twice every six seconds. Fifteen nautical miles range. But it is in itself a mere 17 metres tall, a square stone tower with lantern and gallery, attached to the front of the keeper's house: as you can see from this poached image (I didn't take the snap obviously, not been to Île du Grand Rouveau, please excuse the liberty of reproducing this likeness here). The phare is of unpainted stone; the lantern dome is black-painted. Huelse has a historic postcard view, ready for your inspection. The Île du Grand Rouveau on which this light is situated, is the westernmost of the Îles des Embiez, a group of five islands with associated reefs and shoals. You can see that on the map extract, I am just emphasising the point. As it sits on the topmost top of the isle, hence the 45 metre focal plane. A half decent lighthouse associated with Toulon… the exception that proves the rule at Toulon……

I am not featuring the feu on Cap Sicie as it is nap. (not a phare, just a feu). I eschew it.

Cap Cépet was rebuilt in 1950 but has been inactive since 1992. Fourteen and a half metres tall, a square masonry tower with lantern and gallery, rising through the rear of a double storey masonry keeper's house. It is painted white, the lantern black. The original Fresnel lens is on display at the Musée National de la Marine (National Naval Museum) in Toulon. So it looks like a permanent loss to the lighthouse scorecard. I understand that the line drawing (left) gives a reasonable idea of the configuration of the 1950 rebuild; the original lighthouse was destroyed in 1943 during the unpleasantness. The cape is a restricted military area and has been closed to the public for many years. In 1992 the Navy relocated the light but it also restored the lighthouse as an historical monument. So that's alright then. Or is it?

Instead, in 1992 those navy types brought into service another fourteen metre white painted tower with a focal plane of 76 metres firing off three white flashes every fifteen seconds. I've been tipped off that the range is 20 nautical miles. It still has a gallery but now rises from the centre of a concrete equipment shelter, the roof of which is red. Sounds rather tasteless! No one has a snap of this place: if you had they'd have to take you out and shoot you. The military you see. This fixture is about 155 metres northeast of the historic lighthouse. Uphill. Possibly, just a wild guess on my part. You can't go and see it unless you join up and get a posting there. And you'd have to be Fr. That's a lot to ask.

I do wish the military would leave phares to The Bureau, so that we can all enjoy them. Look how bland my post is looking without images of phares. Or any lighthouse, save for a line drawing of Cap Cépet and that purloined likeness of Le Grand Rouveau taken by a fellow pharologist.  It is going to be like that from now on, I fear, but I will do what I can. Grit your teeth!

Thanks to The Lighthouse Directory* for helping out on this post and one of the contributors who took ship to eyeball Le Grand Rouveau. 

*even though I cannot grasp the concept of what a square cylindrical tower is.

There is no point in scrolling any further down this post: there is no concluding image this time. Sorry.