While awaiting the response from Unesco on a possible World Heritage listing, the Cordouan lighthouse (Gironde) is caught up with the small encumbrances of everyday life.
Indeed, no one has any news from the seasonal worker in charge of welcoming tourists and the shop of this lighthouse, while a volunteer was supposed to arrive on July 1.
Read also: Solar energy is at the expense of the forest in Gironde
"
He was supposed to start today but he no longer responds
," said the Joint Union for the Sustainable Development of the Gironde Estuary (Smiddest), responsible for the management of the lighthouse.
The Smiddest, however, ensures that it has already received "
some applications
" and hopes to have someone to start next week.
Lighthouse of kings
Located at the mouth of the Gironde estuary, the lighthouse welcomes 20,000 visitors each year. As for nicknames, the “King of the lighthouses”, also nicknamed “Versailles of the seas”, is above all called the “Lighthouse of the kings”. Its construction, begun at the end of the 16th century and completed in 1611, is a tribute to Kings Henri III and Henri IV. The oldest lighthouse in France then accommodates two levels in a Renaissance style. It was not until the French Revolution that it gained height, when in 1790 the engineer Joseph Teulère grafted a tower on the existing monument, to make the work culminate at 68 meters. It was the first lighthouse classified as a historic monument in 1862, at the same time as Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.
