Page 209 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Brittany

L OIRE-A TLANTIQUE  207

5 St-Nazaire
Road map E4. * 66,000. £ @
k Nantes-Atlantique. n Boulevard
Légion d’Honneur; (02) 40 22 40 65.
( Tue, Fri & Sun. _ Les Escales
(world-music festival, late July);
Consonances (chamber music, Sep).
∑ saint-nazaire-tourisme.com
The great shipyards of
St-Nazaire began to develop
in the 19th century, when ships
too large to sail up the Loire to
Nantes would dock here. The
port is still a major industrial
and shipbuilding centre today.
The Écomusée, in the
harbour, illustrates the wildlife
and history of the Loire estuary.
It also gives access to L’Espadon,
a French submarine built in
1957, in which the life of
The broad, sandy crescent-shaped beach at La Baule submariners is re-created.
A monument commemorating
3 La Baule Occupying the eastern the abolition of slavery stands
third of a wide bay, near the ecomuseum.
Road map D4. * 16,400. £ @
n 8 Place de la Victoire; (02) 40 24 Pornichet is extended on The STX Chantiers de
34 44. ( Apr–Sep & school holidays: its eastern side by several l’Atlantique, shipyards from
daily am (Jul & Aug all day); Oct–Mar: beaches and smaller bays. which such legendary liners as
Tue–Sun, am. _ Pardon d’Escoublac “Port Niché” (Nestling Normandie (1932) and France
(Aug). La Baule Jazz Festival (Jul-Aug). Harbour) began to grow (1960) were launched, and
∑ labaule.fr into a fashionable where impressive cruise liners
resort in 1860, are still built today, are open
Famous for its excep- when publishers to visitors.
tionally long beach, and other literary Escal-Atlantic, an exhibition
which stretches people came tracing the history of ocean
for some 8 km to enjoy the liners, is laid out in a huge Nazi
(5 miles), La Baule coast here. blockhouse in the submarine
became a hol iday The Plage des base here.
resort when the Detail from an elegant Libraires
rail link with the villa in Pornichet (Booksellers’ E STX Chantiers de l’Atlantique,
interior opened in Beach) recalls Ecomusée, Escal’Atlantic,
1879. Residential districts were those days. L’Espadon submarine
then created, and a multitude This smart resort also Port de St-Nazaire. Tel (02) 28 54 06
of villas and luxury hotels boasts a number of elegant 40. Open Each site has different
sprang up. The seafront villas built between 1880 opening hours, call for more detailed
promenade was opened in and 1930. information. &
1929. Later, how ever, apartment
blocks replaced the seaside
villas, although a few fine
examples survive, particularly
in the resort’s eastern exten sion,
La Baule-les-Pins. About 10 km
(7 miles) inland is the large
Forêt d’Escoublac, which is
traversed by footpaths.

4 Pornichet
Road map D4. * 8,160. £ @ La
Baule. n 3 Boulevard de la
République; (02) 40 61 33 33. ( Wed
& Sat; covered market daily Jun–Sep.
∑ pornichet.fr Pont de St-Nazaire over the Loire estuary, the longest bridge in France

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