Until the early 19th century, La Cotinière was a natural paradise on the Oléron coast, protected by a pair of locks. A 135-meter dam was built in 1843 to reinforce this small fishing port, which is still very modest: only seven boats are moored!
Close to the coast, the villages of La Cotinière and Colombier are so characteristic of traditional Oleron “towns,” with their few houses on one level, as well as a medieval chapel, now covered by windy sand. The pier was expanded in 1862 and again in 1867. A thirty-meter pier was built at the same time.
However, these efforts are ruined by a storm in 1870, which reduces all these works. It was not until 1890 that the complex was rebuilt and the lighthouse came to supplement this infrastructure. Meanwhile, the fish market was built in 1910, while the ports were in full development. At the same time a canning factory was built; it produced sardines, the “cotinardes” .
The city’s dynamism makes it consider its erection into an independent municipality in 1913, but the project remains a dead letter 15. The following year, a new storm begins the dams.
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