Lifeboat shelter

The lifeboat station was built in 1869, at a time when there were many shipwrecks between the islands of Ré and Oléron. The situation was so alarming that the Central Lifeboat Society had this shelter built near Saint-Clément-des-Baleines.

Comprising a huge hall with arches overlooking the sea on one side and the fields and village on the other, with large doors and a ‘lifeboat’ sign, it was designed to allow a group of men to cross the dune to launch the rescue boat. To help with...