Phare de la Banche, Offshore lighthouse in La Baule-Escoublac, France

Phare de la Banche is an offshore lighthouse built by engineers Chatoney and Leferme on a rocky plateau southeast of La Baule-Escoublac, a bank that barely emerges at the lowest tides. Its smooth masonry tower, with a granite base and exposed stone, is painted in black and white bands and ends in mouldings carrying a cut-stone balustrade. The 1893 bands distinguish it from the Phare du plateau du Four and the Phare du Grand-Charpentier.

A first masonry turret was erected in 1825 on the Banc du Turc. In 1865 engineers Chatoney and Leferme built the present tower on a granite base, fitted with a fixed red third-order light. Black and white bands were painted in 1893 to tell it apart from the Plateau du Four and Grand-Charpentier lighthouses. It was listed as a monument historique on 2 December 2011.

The lighthouse received historical monument status on December 2, 2011, recognizing its role in French maritime navigation heritage.

The lighthouse stands offshore on a rocky plateau that barely emerges at the lowest tides, so there is no jetty and no walkable access; it is reached only by boat. The tower is not open to visitors, and the 1930 optic is instead displayed at the Nantes-Saint-Nazaire port authority headquarters.

The 1930 lens, which flashed in groups of two plus one every 15 seconds, is not in the tower: it is displayed at the headquarters of the Nantes-Saint-Nazaire port authority. The lighthouse was the last inhabited one in Loire-Atlantique, automated only in 1986.