En Colimaçon

I looked up the word nautilus and could not find it in my French dictionary. Instead there was "en colimaçon" meaning spiral staircase, which makes me think of conch, one of the shells I thought of when I looked up the stairs which ascend to the top of the lighthouse on the Ile de Re, about 280 miles almost due west from Paris, and pointing across the Atlantic to the northeastern shores of the United States. Because I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for many years, I have not had my feet in or eyes on the Atlantic since I played in those waters as a child. It was quite cool to do these things from the European shore.

The island is an archipelago of islands some 25 kilometers from east to west, very flat and in addition to wonderful sun drenched white walled homes with pale colored shutters, beautiful harbors, fortifications, there are many salt flats. I could have selected any of these, but that shell shape would not let me.