Pitch up at any considered one of Guérande’s 4 city gates and there’s no query that you simply’ve arrived someplace fairly particular. With 1300 metres of unbroken ramparts and 6 imposing towers, the town partitions are a few of the greatest preserved in France and probably the most full in Brittany.
The masonry seems fairly spectacular now within the 21st century, an age after we are all used to huge builds, so think about the impression that Guérande would have had within the mid-14th century when the partitions have been commissioned by Jean de Montfort through the Breton Battle of Succession. This was clearly a city that meant enterprise.
White gold – the salt marshes of Guérande
And the primary enterprise of this strategic neighborhood constructed on excessive floor close to the Atlantic coast was salt. Right this moment Guérande is a part of the Pays de la Loire area, however till 1941 it was a part of Brittany, and Brittany within the 14th century was an impartial and highly effective Duchy. Solely in 1532 did it change into a part of France with the wedding of Anne de Bretagne and Charles VIII.
Guérande managed the salt marshes and with them a commodity as essential to medieval every day life as fridges are to us at the moment, the prime technique of preserving meals shares. By the tip of the 14th century, Guérande was the second-largest city in Brittany after Nantes with some 4,000 inhabitants and a few 500 years later, I can nonetheless sense the ability contained inside these strong ramparts as I step by way of Porte Saint-Michel into one other world.
A go to to Guérande divides neatly into two halves. The walled city with its half-timbered buildings and historic streets, retail temptations and eating places. And the intensive salt marshes fed by a slender inlet from the Atlantic Ocean at Le Croisic. The 2 are inextricably linked, so make sure you see them each.
The city of Guérande
Guérande’s ramparts have been categorized as a Historic Monument in 1877 and at the moment the city can be a part of the Villes & Pays d’Artwork et d’Histoire community. Cease off on the Château-Musée contained in the Porte Saint-Michel, which has served over the centuries as ducal lodgings, jail and City Corridor. The one web site open to the general public contained in the wall itself, this medieval gem additionally gives entry to greater than a 3rd of the rampart stroll the place you may peep over chimneys and rooftops into hidden gardens and cobbled alleys.
Then simply wander – it’s not possible to get misplaced. The walled city is split roughly into quarters by two primary streets that intersect outdoors Saint-Aubin Collegiate Church, its slate-clad spire seen from throughout. Historical past unfolds at each nook in the event you preserve your eyes open. The skin pulpit beside the primary door of the church. The traditional buildings round Place du Pillori. And the walled Manoir de la Prévôté, residence to the medieval Provost, highest rating dignitary among the many canons of the collegiate church.
After a succulent salad on the terrace outdoors Gout’Thé, a pleasant tea room and small store in Rue de Saillé, I head outdoors the town partitions to Pradel on the sting of the salt marshes and the Terre de Sel customer centre to find how conventional strategies of salt manufacturing are nonetheless in use at the moment. Open every day all year long, this glorious facility consists of an exhibition and well-stocked store, and is the departure level for guided strolling excursions of the salt pans (advance on-line reserving strongly suggested).
The artwork of salt manufacturing
Generations of salters or paludiers, have formed and managed the panorama right here for nearly 1500 years and in 1991, Guérande salt was awarded the celebrated Label Rouge. In winter and spring, the marshes are quiet as salters perform upkeep prepared for peak manufacturing season. Our English-speaking information explains to our small group how the salters fill their reservoirs by opening sluice gates on the primary canal to confess the robust spring tides. The water then runs right into a collection of shallow swimming pools and finally evaporates from the impact of wind and solar, inflicting the salt to crystallise.
The result’s two totally different sorts of salt, painstakingly eliminated by hand utilizing long-handled implements. The coarse gray salt (Gros Sel), wealthy in minerals, is scraped every day from the underside of the swimming pools, while the superb white Fleur de Sel is collected from the floor of the brine. As a basic rule, use Gros Sel in cooking and Fleur de Sel on the desk for that additional particular salty tang. Mash potato and fries simply aren’t the identical with out it, so I take the chance to top off – gradual meals at its most pedestrian.
Salt manufacturing is a extremely expert operation and Terre de Sel is run as a co-operative, many salt pans handed down by way of generations of the identical household. However a big variety of new paludiers are being interested in this historic lifestyle in a peaceable, pure surroundings that’s residence to greater than 180 species of fowl.
I keep in a single day on the charming Moulin de Beaulieu, a three-storey, one bed room windmill simply outdoors the ramparts (unsuitable although for anybody with mobility points). And for dinner, take pleasure in an al fresco meal at Burger et Sarrasin beside the cathedral, a scrumptious Breton tackle the standard burger utilizing native produce and with a alternative of particular bread containing sarrasin or buckwheat.
What to see close to Guérande
Subsequent morning, I potter alongside the coast to La Turballe, a serious centre for sardine canneries till 1989 and nonetheless France’s 10th greatest fishing port. Take a guided tour from the Maison de la Pêche museum to go to the fish public sale rooms on the quayside; step on board a Sixties sardine boat, Au Gré des Vents; and study France’s first offshore wind farm, the Parc Eolien en mer de Saint-Nazaire.
I additionally discover close by Piriac-sur-Mer, designated a Petite Cité de Caractère of Loire-Atlantique, the place granite homes face onto slender flower-fringed streets behind a tranquil marina. Head the opposite approach and also you’re only a brief drive from the trendy seaside resort of La Baule and the tranquil wetland of La Brière Regional Pure Park, each nicely price a stopover. Be part of me there within the Spring situation of the journal to see why…
Vacationer info from www.labaule-guerande.com
By Gillian Thornton, one of many UK’s main journey writers and an everyday author for The Good Life France Journal and web site.
Need extra France?
Uncover extra fabulous locations in France with our free journal The Good Life France
Love France? Have a take heed to our podcast – all the pieces you wish to find out about France and extra!
All rights reserved. This text is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten (together with translated) or redistributed with out written permission.
