He didn’t like the term automation. No, he preferred to talk about “modernization”. André Favennec, whom many preferred to call “the elf”, died at the age of 77 in April 2024, twenty years after his last major project, we learned 20 minutes at the Lighthouses and Beacons. A former notary’s clerk, he joined the Brest Lighthouses and Beacons subdivision in 1981 as a technician.
His mission ? Automate the lighthouses at sea in Finistère with a view to repatriating the keepers to the continent. Until his retirement in 2005, André Favennec worked on most of the light lookouts on the Breton tip, particularly to repair faulty lights.
He narrowly escaped death
However, the life of “Dédé” Favennec could have ended sooner. On September 22, 1993, the technician was struck by a blade while he was taking to the air on the platform of the Four lighthouse. It’s a colleague going out for a pee who sees the elf struggling in rough seas. He throws him a buoy but without success. It was finally a toulin apple thrown by a third technician that André Favennec managed to catch to return to the lighthouse and continue his mission.
In a documentary broadcast in 2004 and relayed by the enthusiast Keeper2Lighthouse on » This report was filmed on the Kéréon lighthouse, between Molène and Ouessant.
” It hurts my heart “
Kéréon was the last open sea lighthouse in Brittany to have keepers before their departure in 2004. “We were dealing with people who loved their lighthouse and wanted to stay there. It’s true that it hurts everyone’s heart, but we have to evolve in all directions,” testified André Favennec in this report from the show This is not rocket science.
Jean-Philippe Rocher and Frédéric Roussel, the last two keepers, had been transferred to the Virgin lighthouse. Today, only the Cordouan lighthouse, in Gironde, is still inhabited.