Fort Boyard is a fort located between in the île d'Aix and île d'Oléron in the Pertuis d'Antioche straights, on the west coast of France. The island of Aix, as seen from Fort Boyard. ... ÃŽle dOléron (English: Island of Oleron) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France (due west of Rochefort), on the southern side of the Pertuis dAntioche straight. ... The Pertuis dAntioche is the name of a strait on the Atlantic coast of Western France, located between the two islands Île de Ré and Île dOléron and the continental coast, between the cities of La Rochelle and the naval arsenal of Rochefort. ...

Fort Boyard

The construction of this fort had already been considered since the completion of the arsenal in 1666, but Vauban famously advised Louis XIV against it saying "Sir, it would be easier to catch the moon with the teeth than take on such an endeavour in such a location". Fort Boyard, July 2004. ... Fort Boyard, July 2004. ... Events September 2 - Great Fire of London: A large fire breaks out in London in the house of Charles IIs baker on Pudding Lane near London Bridge. ... Vauban designed this pentagonal fortress to withstand sieges. ... Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ...

The fort was actually started under Napoleon in 1801, in order to protect the coast (and especially the arsenal of Rochefort) from possible incursions by foreign (and especially British) navies. At that time, cannons only had a limited range, and the distance between the two islands of Aix and Oleron was too large to block the passage. For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... 1801 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Rochefort is a commune in western France, a seaport on the Atlantic Ocean. ...

Following difficulties in establishing a firm base (stone blocks had to be installed on the sandy sea bed during low tide but they still sank under their own weight) the project was adjourned in 1809. Contruction started again in 1837 under Louis-Philippe, following renewed tensions with Great Britain, and was completed in 1857. 1809 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Louis-Philippe of France (October 6, 1773–August 26, 1850), served as the Orleanist king of the French from 1830 to 1848. ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Fort Boyard had a complement of 250 men. It is 61 meters long, 31 meters wide, and its walls are 20 meters high.

By the time of its completion however, the range of cannons had markedly increased, making the Fort unnecessary.

Under the Commune, the fort was converted to a prison, before being abandoned a few years later. The term Paris Commune originally referred to the government of Paris during the French Revolution. ...

Since 1990, Fort Boyard has been used as the location for a television game show of the same name. A contraption similar to an oil rig has been installed on the side in order to facilitate access to television crews. For the Temptations album, see 1990 (Temptations album) MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Fort Boyard is a French television series, running from 1990 to the current date, that has been remade across the globe, most successfully in the United Kingdom and Sweden. ... Natural gas drilling rig A drilling rig or oil rig is a structure housing equipment used to drill for and extract oil or natural gas from underground reservoirs. ...

Fort Boyard is now shown on Ftn for the new series. Ftn (Flextech Television Network) is a TV channel from Flextech transmitting free-to-air on Freeview (Channel 20), and also on Sky Digital (Channel 199), Telewest (123), and NTL (914). ...