InvestigationCordouan has watched over the Gironde estuary for four centuries. In this historic gem, which awaits the decision on its UNESCO World Heritage listing by the end of July, Pierre Cordier and Thomas Dalisson work in a profession that no longer exists, which has disappeared with the automation of fires.
The soul of the sea knocks at the postern. She hums, whispers, roars, depending on the evening. She never misses her nocturnal round around the wall. Its waves play with the ancient wooden door, thread their way, bathe the bottom of the stairs in their choppy water, the vault of which echoes back.
Barefoot on the stone slabs, in the perfect circle of the lighthouse courtyard, Pierre Cordier stops for a moment to listen. This is one of his favorite sounds in Cordouan. He also likes that of the heavy bronze tie rods that squeak when the door opens onto the foreshore, the area uncovered at low tide. There are only six goalkeepers left in France, who take turns here in pairs.
Seven kilometers from any coast, Cordouan has watched over the Gironde estuary for four centuries, the largest in Europe. In front of him, the infinite horizon of the Atlantic. On the right, Royan (Charente-Maritime), on the left, Le Verdon-sur-Mer (Gironde), the two ports allowing to reach it. Behind him, the mixed waters of the Garonne and the Dordogne, which flow together into the ocean. And at the end of this long notch in the western facade of the country, Bordeaux.
A long white candle
The electric generators and the gulls are silent, the last visitors are sleeping on dry land, the lighthouse is silent. When you look up you can only see a starless night and this long white candle which rises to 68 meters in height, dominating the sea. Cordouan in its whiteness looked like a specter. “He seemed to me, on his reef, fantastically pale. His tower seemed like a ghost saying: “Woe! misfortune !””, wrote Jules Michelet in The sea (1875). It must be said that it is then coated with a thick layer of oil paint – white. That evening in October 1859, during a storm that lasted four days, Cordouan saved thirty men all the same, as the historian then narrated.
On July 24 or 25, Unesco, the United Nations organization for education, science and culture, will deliver its decision, which has been under review since 2016. The oldest lighthouse in Europe, a tall palace, where the XVIIIe century piled up gracefully on the Renaissance without altering it, does it take on a “Outstanding universal value” ? Does he meet at least one of the required criteria, ten in number, the first of which is to testify to the “Creative genius of humanity” ? The international procedure is long, complex, to obtain its inscription in the world heritage. But without betraying a secret, it seems that the lights are all lit on the starboard side, that is to say an optimistic green color.
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