Cordouan’s lighthouse is competing to be France’s favourite monument

Registered on the World Heritage List since 2021, Cordouan lighthouse represents so much more than a simple monument. It’s also an architectural masterpiece, that witnessed the evolution of sciences and navigation, and a strong symbol of our region’s cultural heritage.

In 2025, the lighthouse was a candidate to the contest Monument Préféré des Français, organized by local televisions. We made it to the very last step of candidacy and only needed your vote to finally be crowned France’s favourite monument.

This contest is way much more than a simple event :

✔️ Valorizes the craftmanships linked to the preservation of monuments;

✔️ It sustains the local initiatives around cultural tourism;

✔️ And it contributes to the transmission of our country’s history.

Competing against other symbolic places, each unique in their own way, Cordouan lighthouse bore a unique candidacy : a living monument, still used, at the heart of the Gironde estuary, that can only be reached by boat, and guarded all year aound by dedicated people.

In the end, and thanks to your votes, our monument ended up at the second place : an honour for the lighthouse.