La Rochelle
La Rochelle was to be Yuma’s home for a little while. Frederieke wanted to make a trip back to the Netherlands to see her mum and siblings and while she was away, I wanted to get a few boat projects and repairs done. So, things like door handles got sorted out, eyes were spliced into sheets that needed them, loose cockpit seat slats were re-attached, the stove/oven got raised up high enough to allow it to swing freely, some stationary supplies were sourced (or not in some cases), scuba tanks were inspected, chafe protection for mooring lines bought, new mooring lines bought and whipped, and so on. As mentioned before, there is always a long and never-ending ‘to do’ list on a sailing boat.
Luckily, La Rochelle hosts one of the best marchés along France’s Atlantic coast, so it wasn’t all boat work.
With F’s return we finished up some (definitely not all) of the remaining jobs, but it was also time to savour some of the things that La Rochelle had to offer. The older parts of La Rochelle are lovely, as one would expect of a once rich trading port. A strong tendency towards Protestant beliefs brought some pretty significant strife to the city over the centuries, but somehow it seemed to bounce back after each of these setbacks. Perhaps not surprisingly, this Protestant tendency has a Dutch link. During the 80-year war (1568-1648), La Rochelle supported the protestant movement of Willem of Orange in the Netherlands, and the Dutch were able to use La Rochelle as a base to raid Spanish shipping. All good fun. Later in the 17th century, with the tide running in the opposite direction, French Huguenots ended up as religious refugees in the then Dutch Republic.
The entrance to La Rochelle’s vieux-port.
One consequence of all of this is that in the old city and the harbour area there are old forts, towers, a medieval lighthouse (!) and defensive walls behind which hide beautiful neighbourhoods with extensive colonnaded (I think that would be the term) shopping streets and imposing sandstone churches and government buildings. Mixed in with these and beyond them are tightly packed, rambling streets of multistorey housing over shopfronts – all very picturesque. On the other side of the harbour, and out towards our marina at Les Minimes, are new high and medium density neighbourhoods, a university and lovely beach and shoreline promenades. Thee latter two at least being all very pleasant.
The Lantern Tower of La Rochelle, used as a watchtower, a lighthouse, and as a prison.
And La Rochelle has a couple of attractions that were right up our alley too. The first of these is the aquarium, a huge collection of impressive tanks with a great collection of marine life. Just as entertaining for us as the contents of the tanks were the hordes of children running excitedly between the legs of the crowd to see this fish and that thing while their parents tried to keep track of them and their siblings and some absent-minded partner or grandparent in the crowd. Everybody was having a huge amount of fun and there was a very happy vibe to the whole place. I’m not sure whether the fish, particularly the active swimming species, trapped in their little prison tanks, picked up on the general happiness they were so effortlessly engendering, but they certainly deserved to feel a bit of joy as recompense.
“Generation in Generation” by Bruce Krebs, displayed on the historic walls of the port.
The second attraction for us was the Maritime Museum. This is a bit of an odd collection in that it is comprised largely of a couple of very big ships, some lovely early 20th century wooden sailing boats and a small collection of sailing dinghies. It’s an odd mix but it’s a good mix and we spent half a day learning about meteorological boats in the North Atlantic and fishing and so on.
Menus from Frigate France I, a French meteorological vessel serving in the North Atlantic in the 20th century. The meals differ somewhat from those served onboard the various research vessels F has worked on – no vin blanc or vin rouge to start with, let alone champagne at 1130!
It also includes an exhibition that describes the maritime history of La Rochelle, which follows the common story-line of many Atlantic coastal cities in Europe. That is, establishment as a trading port, a bit of Roman influence, then trade and fishing followed by a variety of religious wars, the expansion into exploiting overseas colonies and slavery, the recent destruction suffered during the World Wars, the establishment of industrial fishing, the subsequent collapse of fish stocks and related industries, and the switch to fishing for tourists. It all sounded rather familiair from similar museums in Norway, the Netherlands and the UK. The most important part of the collection for us though, was the part we couldn’t find – Bernard Moitessier’s boat, Joshua (see next blog).
Another historic vessel, the replica of the Russian fregat Shtandart, visited La Rochelle during our stay.
Aside from that, time in La Rochelle was spent taking our bikes for a ride into town to visit the large in- and outdoor markets, going for walks and runs along the coastal walkway south, and checking the weather forecast for an opening to make the crossing to Spain.
