Inside the Fort Boyard: How They Built a Fortress in the Middle of the Sea - Full Documentary

Fort Boyard. The name alone is enough to conjure up one of the most famous maritime fortresses in France. Totally abandoned for nearly a century, the fortress rose from its ashes thanks to a television game show that made its name famous all over the world. It's a star, an iconic image. Despite the colorful adventures embarked upon by the show's participants, a few of its competitors and viewers know the fascinating history of this fort, which is in fact an amazing feat of military architecture. The idea of installing cannon on the Longe du Boyard sandbank gained ground, but it soon became clear that it was almost impossible. For three centuries, a succession of sovereigns and two emperors battled to build this megastructure in the middle of the sea. It's the fort started under Bonaparte and completed by Napoleon III. To achieve this, they had to overcome enormous technological challenges, mobilize a workforce, and spend millions. They built the foundations of Fort Boyard as they built the coastal defenses in the time of Louis XIV, under pressure from the English navy. Why was the project pursued so tenaciously? What strategic interest deserved such commitment? It was obviously about image more than military power. After many attempts and as many failures… They finally realized that the challenge was colossal. How did the engineers and builders finally win their battle with the ocean? A crazy challenge and an equally crazy story. Because Fort Boyard almost disappeared, swept away by storms and the ravages of time. When Jacques Antoine, the producer of Fort Boyard, bought the fort, it was in a pitiful state. Its resurrection was a real miracle, because the challenge to save the building was as vast as the fortress itself. Fort Boyard would become a symbol of the country's heritage. It's one of the most iconic monuments in France. Immerse yourself in two centuries of architectural challenges and discover an extraordinary monument, a journey to the heart of the secrets of Fort Boyard. Fort Boyard, one of the most famous maritime defences in France. Standing in the middle of the ocean, this stone megastructure gazes out to sea. This incredible fortress was supposed to defend the kingdom's coasts from any attack. Located in the Atlantic, between the islands of Aix and Oliron, Fort Boyard blocks the entrance, the strait, to the Marin-Oliron Bay. And the estuary of the Charente, a navigable river leading inland. Here, 210,000 cubic feet of building material, comprising several thousand tons of rock, emerge from the sea, rising to a height of 66 feet. The whole thing is all the more impressive when you imagine it beaten by the waves on stormy nights. But how could this structure have been built in the middle of the sea? Beneath the masonry, on the sea floor, is the base upon which the structure stands. A huge and strangely shaped sandbank, several hundred feet long, protruding 15 feet above the waves at low tide. This sandbank, lost in the middle of the ocean, has a long history behind it. A history that geologist Eric Chaumillon knows well. The sandbank on which Fort Boyard is built wasn't always exactly where it is today. When you look at old maps, dating from the 17th and 18th century, you realise that it was located a little further west. So what has happened is, this sandbank has moved gradually into the Marin-Oliron Bay. In the channel, the sand moved, shifting with the currents and settling on the coasts, filling the bays and estuaries. As crazy as it may seem, the sandbank around Fort Boyard is still moving. The Boyard sandbank is still moving today. One part of the bank is moving towards the island of Aix, and another part is moving towards the island of Oliron. In 1585, a Dutch sailor, Lucas Johnson, created a map entitled Maps of the Coasts and Islands from Poitou to the River of Bordeaux. He indicated a dangerously high sea floor between the islands of Aix and Oliron. He named it the Beignard, the Dutch for sandbank. It would later become known as the Beignard Hollandise, the Dutch sandbank, and then the Longe de Boyard on the French maps. The great adventure had begun. The Longe de Boyard is a real danger because it's a sizeable shoal which is several feet higher than the surrounding sea floor and, above all, facing the Charente estuary. The sea level on the sandbank is always changing. At high tide, there's more water. At low tide, there's less. And when there are high tidal coefficients, there's very little water indeed. So there's a real risk of running aground. It's very dangerous for shipping. The sandbank was therefore not very conducive to the construction of a dressed stone megastructure. For the French sailors to consider building a fort there, they had to see an interest in it. In fact, the Royal Navy was soon under pressure. Its enemies were getting ever closer to the Charente coast. And yet it was in the Charente estuary that Louis XIV had decided to establish an arsenal capable of giving him warships worthy of the name. Louis XIV played a major role in the fortification of the kingdom's borders. And he also played a major role in the establishment of a navy. Because Louis XIV is the best, he's the greatest at everything. So if he's the greatest on land, he must also be the greatest at sea. Upon his accession in 1660, the famous Sun King expressed the wish to start building a military and industrial site capable of assembling and arming warships on an assembly line. The Rochefort site was chosen. Preferred to Bruage, whose port fortified by Richelieu was silted up, the site was spotted and then definitively chosen in 1665. Established in a loop of the Charente estuary, about 12 miles inland, it offered every advantage. The first reason for Rochefort being chosen was its location on the coast. We're in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, and so at the time of Louis XIV, relatively close to Spain. In fact, when you look at the coasts of France, there aren't many places where you can have both a harbour and a protected area inland. In the end, when they looked, they carried out a very thorough investigation. This part of the sea, protected by the island of Oléron, the island of Ré, and the island of Aix, formed a kind of ecosystem that was fully coherent and protected. So that was really a very good reason for choosing to build the Rochefort Arsenal here. Between 1666 and 1690, a gigantic military-industrial complex saw the light of day at the bottom of the Charente estuary. The Arsenal's shipbuilders were certainly not idle. They built around 500 vessels of all tonnages in the Rochefort Arsenal, which is quite something. Throughout the years of war, pressure from the enemy had been increasing, and Rochefort's strategic importance made it a priority target for the kingdom's enemies. The destruction of the new city, and especially of its arsenals, would be a disaster. It was absolutely vital to defend the mouth of the river from attack by sea, because once assembled, the vessels left the estuary and were anchored in the harbour on the island of Aix. It was there that they were armed and supplied with food and fresh water. The largest cargo ships returned to Rochefort, weighed down by their freight, also dropped anchor opposite the estuary. This vast anchorage area was vulnerable. It had to be protected by building a network of coastal fortresses. It was the ring of fire of the Pertuis Sea. Within a few decades, from the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 18th century, several forts were built to close off access to the Charente estuary and try and prevent the movement of enemy ships between the islands. Among these defensive buildings was a small marvel, set on the water, Fort Louvois, the little brother of Fort Boyard, also built in the middle of the sea. Built on a rock, submerged at high tide, between the island of Oléron and the Marin Basin, work on this medieval-looking fort began in 1691 on a rocky block formed by the sedimentation of shellfish and mud. The engineer Francois Ferry was in charge of drawing up the plans and designed an oval building on two levels, each capable of housing naval artillery pieces. At low tide, a 1,300-foot causeway would connect it to the mainland. The challenge was considerable and the difficulties of building a fortress out at sea were enormous. With each ebb tide, no less than a thousand workers would go into action, but the task soon turned out to be colossal. By the time the last foundation stone was laid, on October 20, 1691, half of the total budget had already been swallowed up. The architect's ambitions would have to be scaled back. Vauban, the commissioner-general of fortifications, took over the work. Only half of the oval would be made, giving the fort a horseshoe shape. A single firing platform would be built. And so these fortifications were built very quickly, sometimes too quickly. There were accidents. Sections of wall collapsed because they were built too quickly. They were under pressure from outside events, but they did it anyway. And at the end of Louis XIV's reign, it can be said that, on the whole, this method of securing the Charentes estuary was pretty much complete using the technical means of the time. However, despite the construction of this ring of forts, the Charentes estuary was still not completely protected from enemy attacks. The weak point of the defensive system was well known, the Longe de Boyard. If the English ships arrived in front of the Antioch Strait, the maritime corridor between the island of Ré and the island of Olleron, they would come out at the two channels leading to the Charentes estuary, one being the arm of the sea between Fouras and the island of Aix, and the other, a much wider one, between the island of Aix and the island of Olleron. To block off the strait, they would have to build a fortification on the Longe de Boyard, but there was a problem. The site in which this fort would be placed was closer to the island of Olleron than to the island of Aix. With a maximum range of 5,000 feet, the artillery of the time would be unable to use crossfire to protect the western and deepest passage. And so the idea of installing cannon on the Longe de Boyard gained ground, but they very soon realized that it was almost impossible. It's reported that Vauban said rather famously to Louis XIV when talking to him about this plan to build a fort there, Sir, in my view, it would be easier to seize the moon in your teeth than to attempt such an undertaking in such a place. In reality, it wasn't possible in the 17th century, or the 18th either. They'd have to wait until the 19th century for things to really get going. At the beginning of the 18th century, the construction of a fort on the Boyard sandbank was not yet possible, especially since the king had his eye fixed on the fortification of the harbour of Cherbourg, exposed to English attacks. Due to a lack of financial and technological resources, the Boyard project was abandoned, but its strategic interest was becoming increasingly obvious. They began to fortify the island of Aix relatively early on from the reign of Louis XIV, but the English were keeping an eye on things. They understood that the island of Aix was an extremely strategic place, and they weren't going to let the French develop anything too substantial there. In 1757, they carried out a raid, and in one hour, they levelled everything the French had built. The French Royal Navy was in such a state of decrepitude that 20 English frigates carrying nearly 10,000 men entered the Bay of Biscay. During the landing, the gun battery on the island was destroyed, but the raids were not supposed to stop there. Their goal was Rochefort, which needed to be destroyed. For the French, the arsenal had to be defended. The raid had been a stern warning, and it revived the old idea that it was vital to close the channel between the islands of Aix and Olivon by building a fort on the sandbank. The concept of the creation of fortifications at the beginning of the 19th century had evolved quite a bit since the creation of the Ring of Fire in the Charente estuary with its half-moon forts and keep. Now, they started from a different basis with fortifications that were much more solid, where the artillery batteries wouldn't be placed on open platforms, but would be in housings called casemates. They were getting gradually closer in design to a warship, but one that would be built of stone and which could be installed on the Longe du Boyard. But the project, estimated at 4 million pounds or 9.5 million euros, remained very expensive. It would take a lot of money and a great deal of political will to carry it out. On the eve of the French Revolution, the Ring of Fire in the Strait was still unable to fully protect Rochefort. The fortifications were struggling to fulfill their defensive role, and the coasts of Charente were constantly at the mercy of the English. This situation was far from satisfying for a skilled artilleryman and general by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1801, the first consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, who knew a great deal about artillery, set up a committee to think about the protection of the Rochefort arsenal and the harbour on the island of Aix. Bonaparte was the man of great projects. In 1787, he led an expedition to Egypt. At the end of this revolutionary period, France was enriched by technological means and financial means, because the French armies brought back booty to France from every military campaign. There was money, power, authority. It was the right time to launch such an extravagant project. Extraordinary projects can only happen in extraordinary times. In 1801, a committee looked into the construction of two forts, one on the islet of Inet, the other on the Boyard-Saint-Banque. The Longe-de-Boyard fort would be massive, two-tiered, and in the shape of an elliptical ring. It would be 260 feet long and 130 feet wide, an ambitious monument, twice as long and wide as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The most difficult thing about building it would be creating a solid base in the open sea, 16 feet underwater. Fort Boyard would therefore be built on sand in the middle of the channel, set on a rip-rap base, 490 feet long and 490 feet wide. To embark on a project as crazy as that of Fort Boyard, you need excellent technical skills. Fortunately, this was a time when they were giving engineers a theoretical education, which was much better than before. At the time of the consulate and at the beginning of the Empire, there was a body of engineers that was extremely experienced and well-trained and whose technical knowledge was at the top, so they could embark on major challenges such as the construction of Fort Boyard. And the first time that they really create, that they really invent a fort, completely adapted to the artillery of the time, at the end of the 18th century, it's Fort Boyard. Although the top of the sandbank was the ideal place to build the fort, the range of the guns of the time meant it had to be in the middle of the passage. It would therefore be built on an artificial rip-rap mound, located half a mile further north. This new location placed the fort 9,500 feet from the island of Aix, and 7,800 feet from the island of Elyron. The Boyard project in fact is based on an extremely simple principle, which is that there's a sandbank and it has to be raised by about 15 feet to reach sea level, so they make a big pile of stones and on this pile of stones they build a dressed stone platform, and on this platform they build a fort. Said like that, it's not complicated. In reality it's obviously a bit more difficult. So imagine the recreation of an artificial reef the size of a football pitch, and above all, which can be made to be relatively flat in order to be able to start building a fort. It soon becomes obvious that technically it's something that can't actually be achieved. The first problem is simple. The part of the sandbank upon which the fort will be built is only visible at low tide, and remains at a depth of 15 feet. The technical and financial challenges are quite simply colossal. Even Napoleon was obliged to make a few concessions to nature. Even if the additional costs of the works related to the new location were considerable, First Consul Bonaparte gave the go-ahead for the project on February the 7th, 1803. Ten ships were assigned to the initial works, and 16 were still under construction in Brittany. The site, lost in the middle of the ocean, was a long way from everything, and especially from Rochefort. They needed a support base. They chose to set up a base camp for the site at the mouth of the Perotine Channel, a navigable channel on the island of Oléron. They used hooks and chains for handling stones. On the Boyardville site they had both housing for the workers, and a kind of small HQ, where the engineers would be housed, to ensure that they had the maximum number of human resources and command posts as close as possible to the construction site. The stones for the rip-rap would come from the quarry on the Pointe de Coupon, on the island of Aix. The best quality stones used for the building would come from the quarries of Saint-Savignan-sur-Charente and Crézanne. It's a quarry that's been worked over a little more than 250 acres, and was up to 60 feet deep. The men cut blocks that weighed from 650 pounds for the smallest, up to 5 tons for the largest, and these were transported down the Charente River, which is about half a mile from here as the crow flies. Used since the 1st century AD by the Roman legionaries, limestone from the quarries of Crézanne was used to build the Gallo-Roman monuments in the region, such as the Arc de Triomphe and the amphitheatre in the city of Mediolanum Saintonum, known today as Sint. In the Middle Ages, the blocks, composed of 98% limestone and much sought after for their fine, dense grains, were sent to be used in cathedrals. It was therefore only natural that this material would be used for the construction of the forts in Charente, including the famous Fort Boyard. This Crézanne stone has a particularity. It hardens over time. Unlike a lot of limestone, this is a stone which improves with age. In four to five years, the first sixteenth of an inch of its exterior becomes hard, and this makes it completely resistant to bad weather, to attack from the salty air, and the ebb and flow of the tides. It's a stone that has been used extensively in the construction of the Charente forts, such as Liédo, Fort Renet, and of course, of course, the legendary Fort Boyard. But at the beginning of 1804, it seemed clear that the French guns would not be enough to protect the construction site. Installed on the island of Aix and the Pointe de Saumonade, the gun batteries couldn't reach the Longe de Boyard. But the real problem was still elsewhere. The site's number one enemy was the weather. The winter storms, which dispersed all the stones that had been dumped on the sandbank, so they had to start all over again. It's true that being in charge of a project like this, with a boss called Napoleon, wasn't necessarily easy. So there was a high turnover. There were a lot of resignations. Despite the difficulties, in mid-May 1804, a block of more than 23 feet, taken from the island of Aix, was sunk in the Port of Boyard, at the centre of the future fort. It was equipped with an iron beacon, to serve as a landmark. By the end of 1804, 13,000 cubic yards of stone, equivalent to more than 20,000 tonnes of material, the weight of 454 articulated trucks had been dumped on the sandbank. It's a site which ultimately will move in time with the tides. At high tide, they submerge blocks of stone. At low tide, they unload workers, so that they can arrange these blocks of stones, move them, make sure they are better organised in relation to each other. They also try to secure them with iron fittings, chains and iron bands. In 1805, 34,000 cubic yards of stone were dumped. The following year, 21,000 cubic yards further reinforced the riprap mound, which could now be clearly seen at low tide. The construction of the first course of stones, began with blocks of 105 cubic feet, weighing more than 6 tonnes. But these blocks were swept away during a storm in October 1806. The riprap was displaced. During the winter of 1807, the engineers noted that the 78,000 cubic yards of stones, transported with such difficulty to the site, were sinking. The first course of stones disappeared. They very soon realised that the site was colossal and they were building the foundations of Fort Boyard as they built the coastal fortresses at the time of Louis XIV. That's to say, under constant threat from the English Navy. And all that led to considerable delays. The means were lacking. The administrative war between civilians and soldiers was in full swing and the work was dragging on. Some boats sank with their cargo and crew before they even reached the site. The artificial riprap proved to be very unstable and the ocean currents put it severely to the test. It was a Sisyphean task. They had to constantly start again. A stone that had made it to the top would be at the bottom again when they came back. Building a fort in the open sea is complicated because everything has to be transported to the site, because they're subject to the tides, and also because the storms take away most of the work that's been done. For months they'd be transporting stones which in one night could be scattered all around the sandbag. It was almost a symbol of the state's desire to be stronger than nature. And Napoleon was the strongest. Just like Louis XIV was also the strongest. Except that even Napoleon would have to come to terms with the power of the sea. In August 1808, Napoleon came in person to see the cause of the delays. He came to see the Boyard site and he was able to go up onto the riprap which meant that it was already sufficiently advanced so that at low tide they could put an emperor on it, which was a good sign. He agreed to a reduction in the size of the fort by about half but on the other hand he approved the general structure of it. They had to build a fort which would look like a warship with approximately 74 cannon, a vessel with three decks, two cover decks and an upper deck on which there would also be artillery. It would therefore be shaped as it is today, slightly elongated with two rounded ends. He gave the whole project the green light. The work continued until the spring of 1809 when the English were present for the umpteenth time off the island of Aix in the Pertuis Sea. 1809 was a terrible year for the Fort Boyard project. On April 1st two English ships surprised the workers engaged in building the rip-rap at Fort Boyard. They chased them away easily and landed men who ransacked the site. As expected the French cannons on the Ile de Aix and the Pointe de Saumonade were powerless to reach them. But the worst was yet to come. On April 11th 76 ships flying the English flag approached the island of Aix and came to anchor on the Boyard coast. Opposite them the French could line up only 12 vessels and four frigates which blocked access to the harbour but were unable to manoeuvre. The English loaded 50 ships with explosives and launched them straight at the French fleet. It was a disaster. The fire ships set fire to the French ships which ended up running aground. Following this massive disappointment, Napoleon decided to postpone the Fort Boyard site because it was now established that it was ultimately impossible to carry out the work safely. The English were the masters everywhere. To protect Rochefort Napoleon therefore began construction of two more modestly sized fortresses. Fort Ainet, located between the islands of Aix and the peninsula of Fauras and Fort Liédo a defensive complex built on the island of Aix. But the Emperor would not be the project manager of the fort on the Longe de Boyard. The works were definitively suspended on December 31st 1809. It had cost 3.5 million francs more than 7 million euros spent in vain. Given these astronomical costs, one would think that the project would be definitively abandoned. But no, the Fort Boyard project was far from being forgotten. Although several kings and an emperor had hit a brick wall with it, a new sovereign, Louis Philippe, thought that he would be able to complete the work begun by his predecessors in style. But could he succeed where those before him had failed? In the middle of the 19th century, an event favoured the continuation and progress of work on the Boyard sandbank. The Industrial Revolution. The shipyard reopened in 1841. On the site, at low tide, a stock of cut stones could still be seen, battered by the waves. There were now hydrographic engineers who were able to create very precise maps and they realised that the artificial reef which had been built in 1809 had sunk. This wasn't necessarily surprising, since the Longe de Boyard is made of sand. It had sunk approximately 5 feet compared to the measurements they had in 1809. So, that meant if they wanted to relaunch the work, they would have to start from the beginning again, and have to bring in more materials and complete the artificial reef before they could launch into the construction of Fort Boyard. Technically, first of all, the surface of the riprap mound had to be flattened. Low walls, 3 feet high, were made using canvas bags filled with hydraulic cement, forming coffers. These 10 cubic yard coffers were filled with concrete and hydraulic lime, and covered with quick-setting cement. This artificial honeycomb structure was reinforced by a berm, a kind of stone belt, 6 feet wide. It's self-surrounded by huge 20 cubic yard stone blocks. It was then planned to build a dress stone base standing 6 feet above the highest tide level. This structure had to be 215 feet long and 115 feet wide. Fortunately, they had new technologies such as hydraulic lime mortar, which set very quickly, particularly during low tide, and then not separating from the stones when the tide came in again and the site was submerged. Then they had a factory that was set up in Boyardville, and they started to house workers for the site, and it all began again. The alternation between the immersion of blocks at high tide, the transportation of workers at low tide to go and organize the stones and then pour the mortar. It was really a relaunch of the site as it was in 1807 to 1809, but with new technologies. Only fate and French politics decided otherwise. In February 1848, Louis-Philippe was overthrown. In December, Louis-Napoleon, Bonaparte's nephew, became the Prince-President of the Second Republic, which he put down in 1851 to become Napoleon III. The new emperor intended to complete the work of his predecessors in style. His engineers would follow the plan from 1841, largely inspired by that drawn up in 1801. The fort would take the form of an ellipse, built on five levels, each 13 feet high, opening onto an inner courtyard 40 feet wide. A large monumental staircase plunging into the sea would be built to the west. Designed as a warship, Fort Boyard would be able to operate completely independently. Three rainwater systems with a capacity of 71,000 gallons and 13 powder magazines and bunkers were therefore incorporated into the construction of the base. On the ground floor, 22 casemates, a little less than 16 feet wide and 26 deep, opened onto the courtyard. The outer walls, built in crescent stone, were 8 feet thick at the base because the fort would also have to resist storms, during which the pressure of the water on the walls could reach 30 tons per square yard. Between 300 and 500 labourers would work in shifts day and night on this extraordinary site. A staircase, plunging into the sea, provided access to the fort. The ground floor was completed at the end of 1852. The first floor, 30 feet above the highest water level, was completed in 1854. In 1855 and 1857, the second floor, 45 feet high, and the terrace, 62 feet high, were completed. In the basement, the bunkers were used to store coal, ammunition, food and drinking water. On the ground floor, offices, a kitchen, a prison, artillery magazines and 12 36mm guns would be installed. The first and second floors would be able to receive 44 22mm howitzers, but would be mainly dedicated to housing a garrison, which could number up to 264 men in times of war. Finally, at the top of the fort, a terrace was designed to be an artillery platform. The highest point of the building, a lookout tower, would be built 95 feet high. But curiously enough, this watchtower would not only monitor the enemy coming from the sea, but the 260 men in the garrison. The work was completed in 1857. The construction of a port, consisting of two piers, 100 feet long and 13 feet thick at the base, and a perpendicular dike closing the harbour, was decided upon. In 1860, on the Antioch straight side, a spur was built on the riprap, against which the waves would break, because the fort could be plunged into the heart of an incredible storm, which would cause it to oscillate and make its occupants seasick. In the Charente estuary, it is not uncommon for the marine weather services to record waves 30 feet high, weighing up to 6 tons per square yard. Recently, during a storm, waves measuring 30 feet hit the coasts, exerting a pressure of 12 tons per square yard. The weight of two male elephants on a 3 foot by 3 foot square an extraordinary force, capable of lifting blocks of granite weighing several hundred pounds and moving them as if they were tiny pebbles. At Boyard, it was therefore necessary to build a solid, if not very solid structure, but although the architecture of the fort was resolutely austere and military, the masons and stonecutters still achieved some amazing feats. The art of its assembly was inherited from the builders of fortified castles and cathedrals. The stonemasons who carried out the work were really exceptional, with arches that are extremely well done, with butt joints, that's to say they use as little mortar as possible. It's the cut that makes the two pieces fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. It's done mainly for resistance and solidity, because they know very well that a fort at sea will take a great deal of punishment, and that it will have to be as solid as possible. It's a prestigious site. It's a site which, in a way, shows the genius of French engineers. They remain silent about the fact that they had endless problems completing it, and it's true that from the moment it was relaunched in 1841, it was finished within 25 years, which seems quite reasonable for a site of this size. On the 6th of February 1866, Fort Boyard was officially finished. A total of 8.6 million francs had been spent on its construction, 2 billion euros. The result was fantastic. Built to stand, come hell or high water, the building was 223 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 95 feet high in places. The outer walls, more than 6 feet thick, were pierced with 74 embrasures which could accommodate artillery pieces. Like a warship, the fort had three firing levels, and could fire from all sides. This achievement, the culmination of more than two centuries of architectural reflection, was the pride of the French state. The Minister of the Navy even ordered a hundredth scale model of the fort from the Rochefort Arsenal, destined for their universal exhibition in Paris in 1867. There was something about it that embodied the national image. They wanted to show that they were capable of doing it. It was a demonstration of the naval engineer's skill. They built this magnificent stone model to show that this fort, which they knew wasn't of much use, was still magnificent, was still a success, and embodied the nation's glory. But built within the context of the conflicts with England, and to compensate for the artillery battery's lack of firepower, Boyard would become useless once peace was restored, or if the cannons could fire further. Which is exactly what happened, almost immediately after its inauguration. Artillery evolved a lot from the 1850s. They went from cannonballs to shells, from smoothbore cannons to rifle cannons. They invented melanite powder, and the firing range increased tenfold. There was absolutely no need anymore for an intermediary fort to cover the channel, and so poor old Fort Boyard, when it was finally completed after so many years of work, was no longer needed. Fort Boyard would never receive the 74 guns planned. Instead, 30 160mm pieces were installed in the casemates on the ground floor, and on the terrace. Rails were laid to allow them to be maneuvered. They would never be fired. In 1913, maintenance of the fort was abandoned. Over nearly 50 years, it had cost half a million francs, a million and a half euros. It was a money pit. The building was left to the elements. In 1925, its guns were salvaged by scrap dealers. Fort Boyard died before it had even lived. But this magical place had not yet had its last word, and the story of its rebirth is almost as incredible as that of its creation. It's the fort started by Napoleon I, and completed by Napoleon III. It's clear that it was much more about image than military power, and that's the great trademark of Fort Boyard. It's a star, an iconic image. On May 28, 1962, Fort Boyard was sold at auction. The starting price was 7500 francs, 11400 euros. At the time, everyone thought this amount was more than enough for a totally dilapidated building, frequently looted by unscrupulous visitors. The work required to renovate it would be massive. But to everyone's surprise, a Belgian dentist from Avoria raised the bidding to the sum of 28,000 francs, nearly 43,000 euros. This acquisition blocked the projects to safeguard and rehabilitate the fort by the friends of Fort Boyard Association. It was heartbreaking for fans of the site, especially since the new owner soon lost interest in his castle in the middle of the sea. However, his investment paid off. Considered by many to be useless, from the end of the 1960s, Boyard began to find roles commensurate with its size. But its destiny and its resurrection were to be decided in the space of a few minutes. Produced in 1981, an episode of the French TV show Treasure Hunt would change Fort Boyard's destiny. Its producer at the time, Jacques Antoine, soon realized the potential of this exceptional site. Can you hear me? Yes. Listen. I've got the treasure. Did you find it within the time? Yes, I found it within the time. For me, Jacques Antoine was an audiovisual genius. He got this idea after seeing a film in which Alain Delon and Lino Ventura were wonderful called The Adventurers, which was shot on this abandoned fort in, I think it must have been in the 1960s. There's a whole sequence where the pair of them are on the fort, and what's really interesting is you have the fort, which has been invaded by a vegetation, which is crackling because it's been abandoned. So he saw this film and he said to himself, this place is magical. In 1988, Jacques Antoine bought the abandoned premises from the Belgian dentist. The cost of the transaction, 1.5 million francs, 229,000 euros. It was a risky gamble, very risky, but Jacques Antoine didn't stop there. When Jacques Antoine, the producer of Fort Boyard, bought the fort, it was in a pitiful state. As the breakwater which protected it had been destroyed, it was totally exposed to the onslaughts of the sea, and the problem was that we couldn't allow it to crack. There was an enormous amount of work to be done on it, and a production company doesn't have the means for that. So that's when he had the brilliant idea of giving the fort to Charente Maritime for a symbolic euro, for which they undertook to restore it, obviously in return for allowing us to film the show and to use the fort's image, which was also a very good deal for them, since I believe that after Mont Saint-Michel and the Eiffel Tower, it's now one of the most iconic monuments in France. The building was in ruins, and would have to be adapted to suit the game show that the producers had in mind. He needed a place that symbolised at the same time war a bit. He needed to be able to create playing spaces there, and a legend. And the legend of this fort corresponded exactly to what he had in mind. That's how it started. And then, in 1990, he filmed the first show, presented by Patrice Laffont, which immediately won over both children and their parents, so it was family viewing. So, is this a new game? Is it an adventure? It's hard to know when you first come here. In any case, it's very impressive. It's a game, and it's an adventure. A game that takes place here becomes an adventure. The problem is that when you're making a television programme, and few people know this, there are 140 of us on the fort, 140 people doing 35 jobs, ranging from the animal wranglers, to the set decorators, security, the catering, the production staff, there are a lot of people. If the competitors can hear me, please come down to the courtyard. Thank you. And the fort isn't made to accommodate in quotes, the public. It's a hostile prison, and not at all a place for filming television shows. So, along with Cheryl Marantine, they had to build a lot of things, if only for access. They created a kind of docking area for boats, and a huge gangway. To access it, the boat docks at an offshore station, and you're airlifted onto it. That's to say that a basket is lowered onto the boat, you climb into the basket, and you're airlifted onto the fort. And there you have a footbridge to enter it. They also had to bring cables in, since there were cameras and technology. So there was a whole network of cables. And they had to respect the monument, so they couldn't make holes in the fort. It was very important to pay attention to that. There were a multitude of things like that. They had to create a landing station for a helicopter, because it's stupid, but there are times when you can't get there by boat, because the sea is too rough. And at that time, you have to plan for emergency evacuations. So they evacuated by air, by helicopter. It was also possible to survive in the fort. Imagine that neither a helicopter nor a boat could get there. It was possible to live on the fort for 24 hours. So it was all extremely complicated. Giving the public access to the fort is impossible. So you could say it's pretty much a world first. Yes, you could say that. The game, The Keys to Fort Boyard, was launched on July 7th, 1990 before being renamed just Fort Boyard the following year. You have 50 minutes and not a minute more. The gong! You can now enter the world of Fort Boyard. More than 30 countries have come here and filmed their own versions of Fort Boyard. Welcome to Fort Boyard. Welcome to the challenge for The Keys to Fort Boyard. These foreign versions have been a huge success. It was produced for years and years in Scandinavia. The Americans came, the English came, the Poles, the Germans. There's an incredible aura around it. In Morocco and in Russia, it's been the most successful show on Moroccan and Russian television. And so much so that Putin mentioned it. As it's the only place like this in the world, foreign production companies are forced to come here, which contributes to the reputation of the fort and of Charente-Maritime. Without Treasure Hunt and the courage of Philippe de Dulever, who almost drowned that day, this new game show, now famous all over the world, would probably never have seen the light of day. More than 150 years after its completion, this incredible edifice, the result of reflection by generations of engineers and architects, has become the most peaceful of battlegrounds. The useless fort, born of strategic necessity and the delusions of grandeur of certain sovereigns, Boyard has found its vocation, set on the sandbank whose name it bears. This challenge to the ocean, achieved against all the odds, continues to make us dream.