Since 2024, messages about vacancies at the French lighthouse La Jumienne have been appearing on the Internet. It is alleged that you can get a lot of money for working there, but there are no people willing to respond to the offer due to difficult working conditions. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

In June 2025 in the public “Point of view"(147,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) on VKontakte described the proposed vacancy as follows: "Lighthouse keeper of La Jument (La Jument, pronounced in French as La Jument. - Ed.) in France - a job for $1 million a year, but there are no takers. At first glance, it seems that this is a dream job: you sit on a tower in the middle of the Atlantic, they pay you good money for it. But the problem is that no one is in a hurry to get a job. In a famous 1989 photograph taken by Jean Guichard, lighthouse keeper Théodore Malgorn looks out of the tower doors as a giant wave is about to engulf the entire building. Not everyone can survive such an element, even if they pay a lot of money.” In the same month, similar posts were published in other communities, including “DIY | Construction and life hacks"(3.2 million views), "About everything | Science - facts" (1.2 million), "How is this possible?"(245,000), "Tricks of life"(66,000), etc.

Similar messages were distributed a year earlier, and not only in Russian. The position of La Jumienne lighthouse keeper was not only called the most difficult work in the world, but also highest paid for the ordinary citizen. At the same time, the authors of different publications cited different annual salaries (in addition to the above-mentioned amount of $1 million): $500,000, $1.2 million, €2 million, $2.4 million etc. Such records are found in Facebook* (they also stated that the photo of Guichard was taken during the rescue operation) and Threads*, and numerous videos on this topic are in TikTok, where some received several million views. In addition, in reviews to the lighthouse on Google Maps, many users wrote that they would like to get a job there, and even left a resume. Moreover, this service has a second, incorrect location lighthouse, but even there in the reviews there are comments about the position of the keeper.

Construction of the lighthouse La Jument (“the mare” - French) was carried out in 1904–1911, and more than 100 years later he was included to the list of historical monuments. Construction located near the island of Ouésan in the Iroise Sea in western France. The location was chosen for a reason: dozens of shipwrecks had previously occurred in this region due to turbulent currents. And the lighthouse itself constantly threaten storm waves that reach a height of more than 20 m, so the foundation of the tower had to be strengthened.

La Jument gained worldwide fame after the storm on December 21, 1989, thanks to a series of photographs taken by Jean Guichard. That day, the photographer went to the lighthouse to capture the waves from above, and the keeper Theodore Malgorn, hearing the noise of a helicopter, wanted to see what was happening and went outside (although, according to him, he understood that a storm was raging with a force of about 10 points on the Beaufort scale). “It was exceptionally strong even for the particularly stormy winter of 1989 with unusually high waves,” remembered Malgorn in 2007 in an interview with the German magazine Stern. When the keeper left, a huge wave rose over the back of the lighthouse, and at that moment Guichard took his photographs, which later became world famous. One of the photos brought he received second place in the 1991 World Press Photo competition in the Nature category. Malgorn said that Guichard shared with him part of the income from the photographs: “Not very much, but I’m happy.”

According to Malgorn, those few seconds outside could have cost him his life: if he had stood a little further from the door, he would not have reached the tower. “And I would be dead today. You can’t play with the sea,” he said. The man also spoke about the damage that such waves caused: they broke windows, bent the balustrade several times, and once tore out the front door. In the same interview, Malgorn was asked about his day-to-day responsibilities, to which he replied: “It’s mostly manual work. A lighthouse keeper is a mechanic, electrician, painter and mason all rolled into one. There was also office work, although, fortunately, there was not much of it. [And in your free time] there’s not much you can do about it. Read, watch TV, make crafts. And fish." According to him, there are several lighthouse keepers: they were on duty for two weeks, and then rested on land for a week. Therefore, despite statements in viral posts, workers didn't have to spend an entire year alone at the lighthouse.

In the same conversation in 2007, Malgorn said that by that time he had already been working at another lighthouse for six years - Créac'h, which is located just to the north, on the island of Uesan. He explained the reason this way: “Lighthouses are gradually being automated. There hasn’t been anyone at La Jument since 1991 either.” Then where did the news about hiring such workers come from?

Back in the spring of 2024, journalists from the French newspaper 20 Minutes wrote, that publications about the unclaimed vacancy of the La Jument lighthouse keeper, despite a very high salary, are a hoax. According to the publication, a few weeks earlier, a one-minute video appeared in the French-language segment of TikTok, in which the author talked about similar dangerous work with a salary of €1.2 million per year (at the same time, it was stated that the monthly salary was €50,000, which gives only €600,000 per year). At that time, the video had been viewed more than 177,000 times. However, the lighthouse and signal lights service in France's Brittany region told 20 Minutes it has no plans to recruit keepers. The same note reported that the La Jument lighthouse has been automated since 1991 and has been without such workers for more than 30 years.

After the TikTok video was released, several people called the North Atlantic and Western Channel Interregional Authority to find out more about working at the lighthouse. They were told that such a vacancy did not exist. There have been no lighthouse keepers at sea in Brittany since 2004, when there was automated lighthouse Kéréon. According to 20 Minutes, for 2019 in the region left only a few keepers who worked on land-based lighthouses. The newspaper added that the information about the salary of €50,000 per month is also a gross exaggeration, since workers at one of the sea lighthouses in another region of France received tens of times less. Thus, in 2018, the edition of Le Parisien reportedWhat is the salary of a pair of lighthouse keepers? Cordouan (although it was also automated in 2006) is €1600 per month. It also said that in total they rest at home, on land, about 26 weeks a year.

Thus, viral videos and posts report a non-existent vacancy for a keeper at the French lighthouse La Jument. According to local officials, it was automated back in 1991, so the constant presence of workers there is not required. In addition, bloggers and internet users have greatly exaggerated the salaries for such jobs in France, as well as the length of stay of lighthouse keepers.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Threads and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities and symbols are prohibited in Russia.

Cover photo: social networks / jean-guichard.com