Fort Medoc

Today the weather has finally dropped to a comfortable temperature, so we ventured across to the other side of the peninsula to visit Fort Medoc. We have visited this fascinating site before, but this time we took a friend from the US who has been staying with us for a few days.


Fort Medoc was built on the orders of Louis XIV in 1689 to defend the Gironde Estuary and prevent an enemy fleet from sailing up towards Bordeaux. This fort was built together with the Citadel of Blaye on the other side of the Gironde and Fort Paté on the island between the two.

In the 1960s restoration work started and the site was cleared up and is now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 
The fort comprised a number of buildings comprising among other things; a bakery, soldiers barracks (in ruins), an ammunition store, a chapel and a water storage well system. 


The ruins of the barracks can be seen in the foreground, and the solitary remaining wall to the right was part of what housed an ingenious water filtration system.


There was a forest fire about 5 miles away from us on Monday when the temperature here reached 41C. We could see smoke rising and canadair planes were flying overhead to douse the flames. Fortunately the fire was extinguished although people nearby had to be evacuated. Two days later, all roads into the area are still closed and we had to take a rather circuitous route on our trip this morning.