Boucle du Phare de Richard à VTT

Originally, a tree planted on the shore served as a guide for sailors. This tree was known as Richard's tree. In the early 19th century, the tree was felled by a storm. An 18-metre-high cylindrical lighthouse was built in 1843. The height of this lighthouse proved insufficient and a second lighthouse was erected nearby in 1870. It was made entirely of metal and was 31 metres high. The lighthouse ceased operations in 1953. Thirty years later, in 1983, the commune of Jau-Dignac-Loirac bought the Richard lighthouse and set about restoring it, turning it into a much-appreciated tourist and cultural attraction. The beautiful story of the Richard lighthouse continues for our pleasure.

Like most of the small ports in the Lower Médoc, it was created between 1850 and 1880 at the mouth of the drainage channels following the damming of the mattes, commissioned 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 for subsequent rearing in the Arcachon basin. Prohibited in 1979, the marketing of oysters is once again possible.

Fishermen's huts, with their feet in the water, built of wood on stilts and linked to the cliff by a pontoon. The large square net, suspended from a mast, is lowered and raised using a winch with counterweights. Carrelets are found along the Gironde estuary and the Charente coastline. Pontoon-built carrelets were badly affected by the storms of December 1999 and February 2010. Many carrelets have been rebuilt in accordance with very strict rules governing materials, colours, surface area, etc.

Near the Richard lighthouse, a small monument, a sign fixed to a small stone wall, stands out. It is the "Stèle des Diguayres", which "honours the generations of men who, for four centuries, have worked to clean up the Nord Médoc and defend their land".