Les Grottes de Regulus ou les grottes du Régulus à Meschers sur Gironde est le nom donné à un musée géré par la commune from Mescherslocated in the cliffs of Meschers, where you can visit and learn about the history of the caves and the town of Meschers.
In fact, the Regulus and Fontaine caves have been brought together in a single site in an exceptional setting.
Regulus is the name of a three-masted schooner scuttled by its captain off the cliffs of Meschers to prevent English troops from appropriating it.
It is possible to visit the caves. Guided tours lasting less than an hour are organized and translated into various languages. Various themes are covered: the history of the Régulus, fishing, the Gironde estuary, etc. For children, there's also a treasure hunt.
Still in Meschers, you can visit the town center, which is centered around the Meschers church, where you'll find the market square and a number of stores and restaurants within easy walking distance. The area is very busy in summer, with a number of stores, bars and restaurants.
Du centre ville, vous pouvez aussi vous rendre au port of Meschersbut aussi aux cliffs to discover the carrelets (fisheries). Don't forget the Nonnes beach, the Vergnes beach and the small Arnèche beach.
It's so much easier!
The caves are usually open every day in season until November. Guided tours are scheduled every hour without interruption from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. In summer, nocturnes are organized on certain evenings of the week.
Admission to the caves ranges from free for children under 6 to 8.50 euros for adults. Special rates are available for groups of 10 or more, and for special situations. The price for nocturnal visits is over 13 euros for adults.
MeschersMeschers sur Gironde, an authentic fishing village, has now become a family destination, where you can enjoy its beaches and troglodyte cliffs, far from the crowds of the Pays Royannais. Visit the Grottes de Regulus Meschers sur Gironde
The Regulus... and the Meschers caves
Regulus is, according to Wikipedia, the name of a star (a 4-star star system) in the constellation Leo.
But as far as the Meschers caves are concerned, Regulus is the name of a ship - a French naval vessel - which was scuttled by its commander, following the orders of his superiors, in 1814, off the cliffs of Meschers sur Gironde.
Early in 1814, the 6th coalition, made up of Great Britain, Russia and Prussia, invaded southern France. France's borders were threatened. In April 1814, Napoleon abdicated.
The Regulus, led by Captain Regnault, anchors at Le Verdon. She is escorted by three brigs, the Java, the Malais and the Sans-Souci.
Account of the days leading up to the scuttling
"Since March 21, Rear Admiral Penrose has been master of the estuary; he was able to enter it, thanks, it is said, to the complicity of pilots - which is not certain - with the 82-gun Egmont, three frigates, three brigs, a bombard and a cutter. He first anchored inside the banc des marguerites; from there, he cannoned and bombarded the Regulus and the three brigs, sheltered behind the banc de Talmond, which covers the Meschers anchorage. He sailed back to Pauillac, leaving two galiotes with bombs, which started firing at eight o'clock in the evening.
"From March 21 to April 6 (1814), the four ships were relentlessly the target of English bombers, while our guns, firing with full force, could only rarely reach the enemy. Admittedly, the damage was not what the English had hoped for. Only one bomb, the first of all, hit the target in full, falling on the deck of the Régulus and covering it with shrapnel. The others were almost harmless, and the Guards sailors, who had seen many others, had become accustomed to living in the shelter of the rope bridge that had been stretched over the Gaillards deck.
Nevertheless, the situation on the Régulus was hopeless, with the English holding both the sea and the river. On April 6, the day after the Emperor's abdication, Captain Regnault carried out his instructions: above all, not to fall into enemy hands. He gave the order to set fire to the three brigs.
At six o'clock in the evening, he himself had his gunpowder thrown into the sea. At precisely eleven o'clock, showing his hand, he was said to be the last to leave his ship, after making sure that the last of his men had left, that the fire he had had set forward and aft had taken hold, and setting fire to the heap of incendiary materials he had had placed at the foot of the mainmast.
This story is said to be an 1832 account by Primevère Lesson, a French surgeon, naturalist, zoologist and ornithologist, who was born in Rochefort on March 21, 1794 and died on April 28, 1849. The text was published in 1934.
The story continues: "The ship burned all night: its masts were huge torches; the flames came out of the ports; the heat of the inferno reached the shore. It was a hellish sight. Suddenly, the cannons, which had remained loaded, spewed out their shrapnel with a tremendous bang. A cannonball blew the roof off a house in the village of Meschers, where Lesson and some twenty sailors had taken refuge. On the morning of April 7, four blackened, unrecognizable carcasses, having burned their cables, were swept away by the current and grounded on the sandbanks."
The Meschers 'holes': a curiosity that dates back...
Since the end of the 19th century, the Regulus caves in Meschers, also known as 'trous de Meschers', have been a curiosity.
Witness these travelogues, such as the one by Lucien Lheureux: "The great attraction of Meschers is the very curious and safe visit to the caves or trous de Meschers (there are always women and children in the village who offer themselves as guides; from the village you reach the edge of the cliff, where a line of old mills stands. After the last mill, a little downstream from the south-east end of the Pointe de Meschers, once dominated by an artillery battery (a fine viewpoint), a path cut into the cliff in a staircase leads to vast rooms 20m. wide and 60m. long, which twenty sturdy pillars protect from any landslide. These are abandoned quarries, and you can still see the cube-shaped blocks adjoining the wall.
