Richard's Lighthouse Loop

Richard's Lighthouse

Originally, a tree planted on the shore served as a guide for sailors. This tree was known as Richard's tree. At the beginning of the 19th century, the tree was felled by a storm. A cylindrical lighthouse 18 meters high was built in 1843. The height of this lighthouse proved insufficient and a second lighthouse was erected nearby in 1870. It was entirely made of metal and 31 meters high. In 1953, the lighthouse's activity stopped. Thirty years later, in 1983, the town of Jau-Dignac-Loirac bought and began restoring the Richard lighthouse, to make it a tourist and cultural site, recognized and appreciated. The beautiful story of the Richard Lighthouse continues for our pleasure.

Richard's Harbor

Like most of the small ports of the mattes of the lower Médoc, was created between 1850 and 1880, on the outlet of the drainage channels following the damming of the mattes, ordered from Dutch engineers. The port of Richard like that of Goulée, became a platform for the preparation and transfer of spat, young oysters fished in the estuary to be then raised in the Arcachon basin. Banned in 1979, the marketing of oysters is once again possible.

The squares

Fishermen's huts, feet in the water, built of wood on stilts and connected to the cliff by a pontoon. The large square net, suspended from a mast, is lowered and raised using a winch with counterweight. The square nets are found along the Gironde estuary and on the Charente coast. The square nets on pontoons were very affected by the storm of December 1999 and the Xynthia storm of February 2010. Many square nets have been rebuilt according to very strict rules, materials, colors, surface area...