GIVEN THAT THIS IS FRANCE, and that France has several large and navigable waterways, it may be hardly surprising that there are a number of lighthouses inland, or were, before Phares et Balises decided that they wanted shot of them and took them out of commission. In some ways it’s a pity, in others seemingly quite logical.
There are such former lights on the Seine, Loire etc., and three I know about on the Gironde Estuary which is the topic of this post. I am not planning to give you chapter and verse on these edifices: certainly they attract no attention from Jean Benoit Heron but they have stimulated interest enough to tempt contributions to The Lighthouse Directory which accordingly includes entries for them. They are: Pointe de Richard, Trompeloup, and Patiras. All now long de-activated. The singular tripod phare that preceded the current Pointe de Richard is no more (neither is the other similar tripod phare called Terre Nègre feu postérieur referred to in post 60) but Huelse has a postcard of it (reproduced below) and there is the model, one tenth scale, in the exterior display at the Pointe.
