Cordouan Lighthouse

I visited the Phare de Cordouan in July 2021, just one day before the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List. The ICOMOS evaluation was clearly positive, so I had no doubt that it would be the first new WHS on my trip through the South West of France.
Different from Els, I opted for a boat tour from Royan. I pre-booked a spot on the boat of La Sirène Cruises. Clyde reported some inconveniences with La Sirène in his review below, but things have obviously changed over the years. In 2021, booking online was easy and convenient with secure payment by credit card, no phone call required, you only have to give your phone number in case the tour has to be cancelled.

No matter which operator you choose, the tours are more or less the same: first with a big boat, then, split into two groups, with an amphibian vessel to the tower, and on foot across the sandbank back to the boat, wet feet guaranteed.
I would recommend being in the first group, especially if you want to take photos unspoiled by other visitors. I was one of the first at the lighthouse and with only about ten visitors, one of the keepers started the first tour. The interior was a surprise. I had not expected such magnificent decorations, sculptures and marble floors. There is even a royal apartment, but no monarch has ever stayed there. In the basement you can see drawings showing how …

Directly after I read the positive ICOMOS evaluation for adding the Cordouan Lighthouse to the World Heritage List, I booked a flight to Bordeaux and a spot on a boat tour that would take me there. So this is how I arrived at my 760th visited WHS only a week after its inscription. It was a shoo-in, an exemplary site, especially from a management perspective. It boasts a large core zone which includes the waters surrounding the lighthouse. The buffer zone extends to the coastal areas, so no wind farms will appear here spoiling the view.

A visit involves some practical considerations, especially when travelling on public transport. Clyde already described most of it well, though I only read his review carefully when I was already on a train to the site (so I worried about wet socks for a while). I had chosen a tour departing from Verdon-sur-Mer, which is linked by direct train from Bordeaux. The trains leave every 2 hours, the 9.29 one connected nicely with the 1 pm departure of my boat trip. From the tiny Verdon station, it takes a half an hour's walk to Port Medoc, where the boats from Vedettes La Bohème depart. I walked alongside the main road on the way up there (following Google Maps), but there is also a coastal boardwalk for hikers and cyclists which I took on the way back.

Port Medoc is a small marina with a couple of restaurants and other amenities. The Cordouan …

If this is actually inscribed in 2020 I can already "tick" it off, and that's mainly why it was on my itinerary. An early morning drive to Royan was required to match my schedule. Parking at the port is not free although I think it's free if you park outside of that lot? Anyhow it's also quite an expensive trip if you include the ride + visit, and as pointed out already it's NOT worth taking a boat trip just to see the lighthouse from close-by. The best parts are inside. It is also quite an effort to get there, a bumpy boat ride, then an LCVP to the sandy patches, a not-so-much-fun walk through the wet sand and algae-covered rocks until you finally get to the lighthouse area. It was also very windy and cold in early May.

You get to spend a good hour at the lighthouse, or maybe it was 80 min. The French-speaking crowd got a guided tour of the tower and the rest of us could enter it first and explore with a nice little brochure. There are several floors of interest, and the top layer with the dual-color glass gives you a look of the sea and what lies below - well, not much really.

You may already be thinking why I give it the thumbs down. I just don't find it unique enough. One of the rooms even had a lot of posters of other towers, or at those gone now? …

I visited this tentative WHS in July 2016. It was a real adventure and I really enjoyed my visit. There are 3 ways to visit the lighthouse itself or else you can take any excursion from Royan or Le Verdon-sur-mer just to get you up close to the lighthouse. I think the latter option would be a real shame is not only would you pay a lot of money (36 euros) just to see the lighthouse without actually visiting it but also because you'd brave the choppy seas just the same so I'd recommend paying the extra 10 euros which should go directly to the coffers of the lighthouse preservation team which do a lot of restoration work every winter. If you decide to visit the lighthouse, you can either visit with Royan Cruises, La Sirene Cruises or Cordouan Express from Royan, with Vedette la Boheme from Le Verdon-sur-mer, or with La Cote de Beaute from Meschers-sur-Gironde. The prices are pretty much the same (46 euros inclusive of the 10 euro lighthouse entrance ticket). I opted to visit from Royan as I wanted to visit the nearby Rochefort and the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter Bridge (similar to the inscribed Vizcaya Bridge in Spain). There are trips to the lighthouse everyday and the companies take it in turns to visit on alternate days. I tried to choose a day with a high tide coefficient to be able to experience a short "walk" from the exposed sandy banks to the Cordouan lighthouse. Booking ahead …

Very impressive lighthouse on a rock outside Royan. The volume, age and history is impressive but information is poor, even in French language. It is a small adventure of its own to get out there and the complete set makes it a nice tour out on a nice day.