Spray with enthusiasm! Five lighthouses to visit to illuminate the summer

MORNING LIST

Vertiginous panorama, sea breeze … if they allow you to imagine sailing on distant seas, these buildings are also architectural treasures.

Brick and concrete

On a clear day, it is undoubtedly the most beautiful view of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage and even of the English cliffs! The Canche lighthouse on the Opal Coast is an original work signed by the local architect Louis Quételart, author of many villas in the seaside resort. Perched at more than 57 meters, this monument, more urban than maritime, was built in 1949 and put into service in 1951. Octagonal in shape with concave faces, this tower made of concrete and brick has the particularity of being 800 meters above sea level. retreat from the sea, at the crossroads between town and forest. Inside, 274 steps lead to the top of this building, which has been listed as a historic monument since 2011. In the former keeper’s house converted into a museum, an exhibition traces the history of the ancient maritime fires of Touquet.

Visits all summer, Saturdays and Sundays. Forbidden to children under 6 years old. Letouquet.com

Marble and opaline

The Eckmühl lighthouse offers a panoramic view of Audierne bay.

With the beautiful Kersanton stone that adorns its facades, the lighthouse of the port of Saint-Pierre in Penmarc’h stands out against the Breton landscape. Automated and always in operation, it watches over one of the most dangerous coasts of the French coast. In Finistère, its name of German origin seems very mysterious: it actually comes from its donor, the Marquise de Blocqueville, daughter of the Marshal of the Empire Davout, Prince of Eckmühl, following a Napoleonic battle. Inaugurated in 1897 and adorned like a palace with a marble ceiling and interior walls covered with opaline, this lighthouse is a precious architectural work classified as a historical monument since 2011. To reach the top of its 65 meters, 300 steps are necessary. The Eckmühl lighthouse then offers a panoramic view of Audierne bay and, at its feet, the old seaweed harbor looks like a little postcard.

Visits in June and September from 10 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., in July and August until 7.30 p.m. with evening events by reservation.
Penmarch.fr

Lantern and red screens

The Senetosa lighthouse, the construction of which was completed in 1892.

It is first of all its shape that we notice, closer to that of a fortified castle with its two cylindrical towers of 15 meters which sit on the cape of Senetosa, near Sartène, in Corse-du-Sud. But this original silhouette is in no way the result of a joke of the engineer Zevaco at the origin of its construction which will be completed in 1892. Each of the two towers has a specific function: one carries the lantern of the lighthouse, the another of the red screens at its summit, used to indicate the dangerous directions that are the point of Latoniccia and the reefs of the Monks. The operation of these lights is now automated and the lighthouse no longer has guardians since 2008. Until then, they had lived there isolated, with their families. The astonishing building of Senetosa is a place of passage for kayakers or hikers who go from Tizzano to Cala di Conca by the coastal paths. You can even spend an unforgettable night in this lighthouse that has become a refuge, with the sea in the background.

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