Sunday, October 25, 2009

Lighthouses off the Coast of France




The above video can only make one wonder if the lighthouse keeper was at home during the storm. I'm not sure if the photo below is a still from this video, but it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up nonetheless.


Jument Lighthouse in France.

A bit of digging on the history of these French lighthouses revealed this:
Some lighthouses were built under incredible conditions on rocks that were submerged at high tide, and in locations affected by strong currents and fierce storms. The lighthouse at Armen, the most legendary of all, is built on a rock which emerges to a height of just 1.50 metres at low tide, right in the middle of the Raz de Sein. When time allowed, the construction workers drilled a hole for the future anchoring bars. The first year they drilled only 15 holes and only 34 the next year. Throughout the whole of the year 1870, they could only work for 8 hours and for 6 hours in 1873. The construction of Armen was to take 14 years. Construction of the lighthouse known as the Jument, near Ouessant, was to take 7 years.
(Read more here.)



Armen lighthouse.


It seems that as time marches on, the upkeep of these lighthouses has fallen by the wayside. GPS and modern technology have made the lighthouse keeper all but obsolete and the maintenance of offshore locales is challenging and costly. Some have become tourist attractions, but those at sea are too dangerous to approach. There's a fascinating article here that goes into more detail about the state, and fate, of these French lighthouses.


3 comments:

  1. Very scary...LOL! OMG...that's some stormy weather! Love the mystical beauty of lighthouse... Happy week, my friend :o) ((HUGS))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remarkable video and a reminder of the power of Nature.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete