France (officially the French Republic, République française) has coasts facing south on the Mediterranean Sea, west on the open Atlantic Ocean, and north on the English Channel (La Manche in French). Long a leader in lighthouse design, France has scores of famous and historic lighthouses. And it was a French engineer and physicist, Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1837), who invented the powerful and beautiful lenses used in lighthouses around the world. The fourth largest island of the Mediterranean, Corsica (officially the Collectivité de Corse) is located southwest of mainland France, north of Sardinia, and due south of Genoa, Italy. After centuries of Genoese control the island was conquered by France in 1768-69 and has remained French territory since. Since 1982 the island has been governed as one of the 18 regions (régions) of the French Republic. Being classified also as a territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale) gives it a degree of autonomy. Since 1975 Corsica has been subdivided into two départements, Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica). The departments have no governmental function since the collectivity has a unitary government. French is the official and dominant language although some residents can also speak the indigenous Corsican language, closely related to Italian. The French word for a lighthouse, phare, is often reserved for the larger coastal lighthouses; a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light") or a balise (beacon). The front light of a range (alignement) is the feu antérieur and the rear light is the feu postérieur. In French île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. In Corsican the word for a lighthouse is faru; isula is an island, puntu is a promontory or point of land, scogliu is a rock, and portu is a harbor. Aids to navigation in France are maintained by the Bureau des Phares et Balises, an agency of the Direction des Affaires Maritimes (Directorate of Maritime Affairs). The Directorate has four regional offices (called Directions Interrégionale de la Mer, or DIRM) at Le Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseille. Mediterranean lighthouses fall under DIRM Méditerranée, based in Marseille. However, many of the lights are actually operated by the transport ministries or port authorities of the departmental governments. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Haute-Corse (Northern Corsica) Lighthouses
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Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica) Lighthouses
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![]() Chiappa Light, Porto-Vecchio, November 2023 ex-Google Maps photo by Davide Cavadini Pilot |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Liguria (Italian Riviera) | South: Northern Sardinia | West: Alpes-Maritimes (French Riviera)
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Posted April 17, 2006. Checked and revised May 18, 2025. Lighthouses: 40. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.