Spent the whole day visiting the three beautiful towers of La Rochelle.

All three towers are made of sand stone and have therefore suffered erosion from the wind, rain and pedestrian footfall over the years but thankfully have been nicely maintained in the worst places, with great care and attention to detail.

Our first stop was the leaning tower of 'St Nicholas'. When I initially took the photo, I was convinced that I had taken a dodgy photo so was pleased to read that in fact the tower does lean.

It was built on long piles made of ironbound oak, set in silt and wedged with stones. The whole structure topped by a raft of beams. The tower was made too heavy so it tilted during its construction. Impossible to correct so it was stabilised in order to complete the construction.



Most interesting and memorable elements; the two narrow and rather steep spiral staircases which intertwine but never meet and the hole that exists between all the floor levels that allowed people to communicate to one another and throw boulders down if threatened by the enemy.

We had great views across the Vieux Port once at the top.

Second stop, the 'Chaine tower' which originally stored gun powder until an explosion blew the roof off, so it's not as high as originally planned. Apparently it was supposed to have a bridge linking it to the tower of St Nicholas!



Most interesting and memorable elements; the fact that the explosion shortened it by 14m and that a huge chain crossed over to St Nicholas which enabled the port to be closed upon the mayor's instruction.

The views from the top were just as good as from St Nicholas.

Finally, the 'Lanterne tower' with its massive spire and vertigo inducing height once we had negotiated the really narrow spiral staircase to the top.



Most interesting and memorable elements; the fact that it was used as a prison and during the 17th/18th centuries sailors were imprisoned here. The walls covered with engraved graffiti inscriptions and of course the tremendous views from the spire, windy too! You could see for miles.





Without going into too much history and detail, let's just say that it was an excellent day out, even if we walked up what seemed like 2,000+ steps. Needless to say, we returned back to Drummer with very tired and aching feet.