Jetée Thiers (Thiers Jetty) has had a complicated life.

Built in 1903 at the instigation of Arcachon's mayor and named four years later for Adolphe Thiers, the first President of the Third Republic, who had stayed here as a private citizen in 1875. The pier was destroyed by German occupiers in August 1944, rebuilt in 1946, then demolished again in 2003 before reopening in 2014.

Locals call it "the queen of Arcachon's piers," and it has earned the title through sheer persistence. Standing at the end, you look out across a bay shaped by tides, oyster farmers and the Atlantic wind. Roughly ten per cent of France's entire oyster harvest comes from these waters.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tour uses Jetée Thiers as its starting point, tracing Arcachon's transformation from a fishing hamlet of fewer than 400 people into a Belle Époque resort, and connecting the pier's panoramic views of the Bassin to the bay's oyster culture, maritime heritage and the eccentric villas of the Ville d'Hiver beyond.