http://arras-france.com/fort-boyard-in-the-charente-maritime-department/

http://arras-france.com/fort-boyard-in-the-charente-maritime-department/

The two famous presenters of the Fort Boyard TV programme: Anne-Gaëlle Riccio and Olivier Minne. They guide the team around the Fort giving advice (and sympathy) when needed!

Le père Fouras (the Fouras’ father) asking one of the team members to solve a riddle in his Watch Tower.

The three famous dwarfs of the Fort Boyard.

The dwarf named “Passe-partout“

André BOUCHET has been playing the role of “Passe-partout” since 1990. It’s him who guides the team from challenge to challenge, who opens the doors, and locks people in when their time is up. He is the keeper of the keys won by the team.

The dwarf named “Passe-temps“

Alain PREVOST has been playing the role of “Passe-temps” since 1990. He is the right hand man of “Passe-partout” and it’s him who leads some members of the team to the Pere Fouras’ watch tower to solve a riddle. There, he is in charge of the hourglass (the riddles are timed).

The dwarf named “Passe-Muraille“

Anthony LABORDE has been playing the role of “Passe-Muraille” since 2004. He plays a minor role in the TV programme and only makes brief apparitions.

La Boule

Yves MARCHESSEAU has been playing the role of “la Boule” since 1994. La Boule is a massive French-man who strikes the gong to manage the time, and leads prisoners to the cages, which he guards while sitting in the sun. Strong and imposing, he is a sailor lost on the Fort.

Mr Tchan

Roberty Long has been playing the role of “Mr Tchan” since 2007. He is in charge of the challenge that bears the same name. He chooses one of the team’s members and asks him/her to lie down on a bed, while another member of the team has to solve a difficult puzzle. If the puzzle isn’t solved on time, the person who was lying down disappears and becomes a prisoner.

Les Maîtres des Ténébres (the masters of darkness)

The “Maîtres des Ténébres” have been present in the TV programme since 1995. Their name has successively changed even though they have always played the same role. First called “Maîtres des Jeux” (the Masters of the Games), they were then called “Maîtres du Temps” (the Masters of Time), and then “Maîtres des Ténébres”. Half men, half tigers, they challenge the team members in the “salle du conseil” (the council room). If the team members win their challenges, they win extra time for the Treasure room.

Félindra

Monique Angeon played the role of “Félindra” from 1991 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2005. She has been playing that role again since 2007. She is the keeper of the Treasure Room and is the tigers’ master. She is also in charge of validating the word-code proposed by the team members by turning the famous tiger head. If the word-code is wrong, the team members cannot go and fetch the gold coins.

The Magician

Serge AVRIL has been playing the role of the “Magician” since 2001. His role is to manipulate several black glasses in which he is hiding a key and a team member has to guess where the key is. The team member has several attempts to guess where the key is.

The teams participating to this TV programme are always different and are made of various personalities (singers, actors, actresses, sport professionals etc). The money that they can win in the Treasure room is given to the foundation they are supporting (foundations against cancer, against a particular disease etc).

For more pictures, click on this link: http://www.passe-muraille.com/photos-les-figures-du-jeu.htm

The fort is 68 m long, 31 m wide, and its walls are 20 m high. It has a total surface area of 2 689 m². Today, the fort belongs to the Conseil général of Charente-Maritime.

The fort can be seen from Fouras, from the bridge that connects the island of Oléron to the continent (south of the island), from the lighthouse of Chassiron when the sky is clear (located in the extreme north of the island), and also from the city of La Rochelle. Each summer, for the festival of the “Sites en Scènes”, fireworks are organized. They can be seen from all the surrounding beaches. These fireworks contain thousands of explosives and usually last 30 minutes.

• The fort history:

The construction of the fort was first considered during a build-up of the French armed forces undertaken by king Louis XIV between 1661 and 1667, but Vauban, his leading military engineer, famously advised against it, saying “Sire, it would be easier to catch the moon with the teeth than taking on such an endeavour in such a location.”

Its construction only started in 1801, under Napoleon Bonaparte, in order to protect the coast (and especially the arsenal of Rochefort) from possible incursions by foreign navies (especially the British ones). At that time, cannons only had a limited range, and the distance between the two islands of Aix and Oléron was too large to block the passage.

Following difficulties in establishing a firm base (stone blocks had to be installed on the sandy sea bed during low tide, where they could still sink under their own weight), the project was suspended in 1809. Construction resumed in 1841, under king Louis-Philippe, following renewed tensions with the United Kingdom. The fortress was completed in 1857, with sufficient room for a garrison of 250 men.

The sad thing is that by the time of its completion, the range of cannons had significantly increased, making the fort useless for national defense !

Under the Commune of Paris of 1871, the fort was briefly used as a prison, before being abandoned a few years later. Over time, the fort started crumbling and deteriorating into the sea as it was left unmaintained.

In 1989, the fort was sold to the Charente-Maritime department, which undertook its total renovation. Since then the fort has been used for a television game show, also named Fort Boyard, which is one of the most popular TV programs in France during the summer. Fort Boyard has remained as the set for the TV show even today. To make the filming possible, the fort was electrified and a contraption similar to an oil rig has been installed on the side of the fort to facilitate access to television crews. Filming commenced in 1990.

This TV game show has been so successful that many countries from all around the world are using the Fort Boyard throughout the year to produce a similar TV game show for their country.

Many famous personalities take part in the Fort Boyard TV game show (singers, actors, actresses, sport professionals…) to raise funds for the charity they support. Eva Longoria and her husband Tony Parker came in 2009.