Le Phare du Bout du monde

Le Phare du Bout du monde in La Rochelle is a lighthouse off the cape of Pointe des Minimes, at the entrance to the maritime channel of the La Rochelle marina.

It is a place of literary memory from the novel Le Phare du Bout du monde by Jules Verne of 1905, inspired by his replica of the Lighthouse at the End of the World in Argentine Patagonia of 1884, on Isla de los Estados located east of the Mitre Peninsula in Tierra del Fuego, in the region of Cape Horn and the Roaring Forties (one of the most dangerous maritime areas on the globe).

Like the original historical Argentinian model, this octagonal wooden lighthouse projects its maritime signal light from a spherical lantern at its summit, produced by seven oil lamps running on rapeseed oil on two sides, through large crystals, with a beam of a range of 27 km (15 nautical miles) at an angle of 93°.Read more