4 Lighthouses to Explore in Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Checkout places to visit in Nouvelle-Aquitaine
The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is the largest region of France with an area of 84,035.7 kilometer square. Tourism is an important sector in a region with significant assets, starting with a mild and sunny climate, wine tourism, many heritage sites, sandy beaches for surfers, and mountains for skiers.
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Lighthouses to Explore in Nouvelle-Aquitaine
The famous Cordouan Lighthouse, built between 1584 and 1611, is the oldest working lighthouse in France. It was located in the middle of the sea, at the mouth of the Gironde estuary. It stands 67.5 metres tall and has six storeys in the Renaissance style. It is the only lighthouse at the sea on the coast of France still guarded, the oldest still in activity and the only one in the world open to the visit.
The Biarritz lighthouse is located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, on the territory of the city of Biarritz, more precisely at the Pointe Saint-Martin, a rocky escarpment overlooking the city. This maritime signaling establishment, designed by the lighthouse and beacon service commission in 1825, was built in 1830.
The Chassiron lighthouse, perched on a rocky cliff, is located at the northern end of the island of Oléron, near the town of Saint-Denis-d'Oléron . The lighthouse allows sailors to enter the waters of the Antioch sluice, a place strewn with reefs and famous for its many shipwrecks. It is the oldest lighthouse in France still inactivity after that of Cordouan.
Phare des Baleines is the name of a lighthouse built between 1849 and 1854 on the Atlantic island of Île de Ré. It belongs to the municipality of Saint-Clément-des-Baleines and replaces an existing lighthouse of the same name that Vauban had built. It owes its name to the fact that in the past whales were often stranded at this point. It was classified as a historical monument since 1904.