Pont du Diable

About

The Pont du Diable is a natural limestone rock formation located on a peninsula in the commune of Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, on the Pierrières massif in Charente-Maritime, and near the conche du Platin. A legend reports that in the Middle Ages a fisherman in perdition during a violent storm would have failed with his boat on the reefs at the end of the peninsula, and that he would have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for life saved: the devil built for him a stone bridge allowing him to return to the land. The rocks on this peninsula have many size lines.

300 stones were extracted from the massif and allowed to build the Cordouan lighthouse off the Gironde estuary between 1584 and 1611. Today, the Devil's Bridge is a popular natural site for tourists and fishermen. Several wooden tiles (fisher's cabanas) have been built on the rock and are still used to fish crustaceans, shellfish and fish of the Estuary.