February 4 2025
Nicknamed ‘Sentinel of the Wild Coast’ and located near La Tremblade, on the Pointe de la Coubre, from where it illuminates and protects the Gironde estuary, the La Coubre lighthouse is the highest lighthouse on the Charente coast. But the retreating coastline is bringing it inexorably closer to the shore, with the risk of damaging its structure in the long term.
Construction of La Coubre lighthouse only began in 1904, after almost a century of accidents and setbacks, including the erection of a stone tower that lasted 12 years before collapsing in 1907.
The area where the lighthouse was later built lies between the waters of the Gironde estuary to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, which brings violent waves to the Wild Coast and offshore to the 'Banc de la Mauvaise' (sandbank of the Bad), so named for its sinister reputation. Swimming here is dangerous, and throughout the 19th century there were numerous shipwrecks.
In 1905, when La Coubre lighthouse was commissioned, and unlike the usual lighthouses, it had not one but two lights. The light at the top, which covers 28 nautic miles (52 km), is one of the most effective in the region, with an exceptional range due to the height of the lighthouse. But the second light, known as ‘the barbette’, shines its red light on a closer danger zone: the sandbanks.
Automated and managed from La Rochelle by the lighthouse and beacon service, it has not been manned for many years, but you can still visit it.
The lighthouse has had its own museum since 2005, retracing its history and operation. You can visit the lighthouse between February and November (and for a few days in December) by booking tickets on the monument's website.
Whether it's to enjoy the panoramic view after climbing the 300 steps to the top, or simply to pose next to the giant ‘Sentinel’, many visitors come here every year. In 2017, a race was even organised to climb the steps of the lighthouse, the ‘Extreme 300’, with a record time of one minute and two seconds.
But it's not just its size that makes La Coubre lighthouse so famous. The very first French lighthouse to be built entirely of concrete had its metal staircase designed by Gustave Eiffel and rises with an interior tiled with 7,500 blue opaline tiles.
At the end of its construction, La Coubre lighthouse stood at 1.8 km from the shore, to prevent it being damaged by the onslaught of powerful waves on the coast. But today, at high tide, the sea is only 150 metres from the lighthouse, due to erosion and the rapid development of sandbanks and estuary bottoms, which are reducing the coastline. And that's not even counting the rise in sea levels in the coming years.
Faced with these concerns, a number of solutions have been considered.
Firstly, to consolidate the structure of the lighthouse and make it more watertight, it was completely repainted in 2016. A tonne of paint mixed with a hardener was used, and three months of work were needed to restore the lighthouse's red glow and consolidate it.
Still, the lighthouse is now threatened with demolition, a government decision that was confirmed on 16 January 2025.
The people of Charente have been quick to rain down petitions to prevent what they describe as a ‘heritage disaster’. But for the moment, none of the solutions envisaged to save the lighthouse seem to be working. Building a breakwater would only delay the inevitable. And the suggestion that the lighthouse should be ‘moved entirely’ is hard to imagine.
Everything suggests that the lighthouse will soon be demolished.
And yet it should be protected. Since 15 April 2011, it has been listed as a historic monument, not only because of its importance to the history of the region, but also because of the need to preserve its distinctive architecture and keep the coast lit up, or risk seeing a rise in the number of accidents in the estuary.
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