Guérande

7 - 10 November 2015

Our lovely Saint-Nazaire host offered to drop us off at the salt marshes... and then decided to drive us right into the middle and give us the guided tour. It was awesome!

The paludiers walk along the grids between their salt ponds as they work, and the salt piles are kept under plastic sheets. I'd love to see it in action in summer!

Originally the salt marshes would have all looked like this

But over the last 800 years they've been transformed

The salt is still all gathered by local families using traditional methods, including the use of planks and wheelbarrows.

We then walked past a couple of villages.

It's closed for the off season, but even from the outside the museum looks interesting!

A basket-shaped public garden in Batz-sur-Mer.

And another interesting public garden.

The windmill.

And helpfully, on a post near the roadside, a recipe using the milled flour!

The marshes from the other side - so green.

We kept walking until we found the "côte sauvage", the wild coast. Basically, most beaches in Europe have been modified, built up around etc, so natural beaches are super special. We didn't go all the way round to the cliffs, but it was still lovely.

The beach.

Me, looking super Kiwi with my pants rolled up and no shoes.

Finn, looking far too cold in his winter jacket for a day at the beach!

The little bay on the edge of the Atlantic!

And the village.

We decided it was too far to walk back, so we stuck our thumbs out. It meant we got to Guérande a day early, but as we'd failed to book accommodation in La Baule, it worked out really well.

The centre of Guérande is a beautiful old walled town.

I'm pretty sure the mini moats around bits of wall and corners are just for making pretty gardens.

This time I was terrible at night photos. The best of a bad bunch. The 12thC stone church didn't get any photos worth keeping. This one's a bit younger, and extremely ghostly.

We certainly won't walk off with this wheelbarrow!

Guérandais are basically Bretons, but not officially any more.

We were due at our next hosts' house in the afternoon, but when we walked into town for a late breakfast they recognised the only people with backpacks silly enough to be travelling round beachside towns in autumn so they took us home for lunch.

The gates to the (centre of the) city.

A random picture of a part of the church.

Even churches have two hour lunch breaks.

Our hosts were absolutely lovely, and they took us for a drive around the countryside.

Kerhinet is a tiny little town on the edge of the second biggest marshland in France. It's been restored traditionally; the cottages have roofs thatched with grasses that grow in the marshes.

One of the gorgeous buildings. Even here, in the middle of the marshes, more dense than Auckland housing!

The dried plants used for the roofs.

Another little cottage.

We told our hosts about MP David Seymour, so 5min later they pointed out this coq.

You can go for tours of the village in horse-drawn carts.

We went for a walk through the marshes.

This creature crawled out of the marshes up onto the carpark.

It danced when our host picked it up (I don't think it enjoyed it much though).

The horses we saw.

This one was super friendly. They pull carts for tours of the marshes, so they're used to people.

Marshes!

More marshes!

I think these are the plants they gather for thatching, but I'm not sure.

We crossed a bridge and saw this embouteillage (traffic jam).

They kept coming and coming!

And this little family was adorable.

Sunset at the beach, and the little town next to it.

The beach

Finn with our hosts, Julien (left) and Mickael (right, with the baguette).

The buildings

The boulangerie

The crêperie (and the North Pole)

The colours (more impressive irl, I assure you)

Everything about this town was delightful!

Also the rocks were really interesting - this might be quartz

And one of the amazing meals our hosts prepared for us!

Julien hard at work making galettes. Mickael's the chef, but we decided Julien could definitely get a job at a crêperie.

There were two courses of galettes, but obviously they were so good I only thought to take a photo halfway through!

Delicious banoffee pie. The salty base balanced the sweet dessert perfectly!

On Monday we walked 18000 steps (not sure in kms, so I know that's not particularly interesting information!), including a walk out of town around the countryside. We felt slightly less out of place when we saw a few cyclists on our walking route.

There are lots of trees in France, and even some ferns.

An ancient wash-house which has been restored recently.

And sheep. We've definitely seen more cows, but it turns out we're not the only country with sheep.

We didn't manage to buy any salt directly from the paludiers, but we did buy some local butter containing the salt, and it went really well on fresh baguettes!