27th June – 1st July – Port Louis
I decided to stay until the Monday. That evening I met up with an Irish family whom I had seen in Benodet, they had a 1 year old son with them which was brave of them. At one of the quayside restaurants we shared modules and fries as well as a few white wines – so a bit of a late night to bed. The next day I was not feeling too well! To clear the head I went for a walk around the citadel which guards the entrain to Lorient. It was built around 1590 by the Spanish and then extended and fortified further in 1618 by Louis XIII. It is now a maritime museum as well as a historic site. Having walked around and discovered that Lorient was the HQ of the French East Indies Company – hence the name Le Orient!
The following day I caught the ferry across to La Pointe which is the location of the WW2 submarine base as well as a museum and location for the large round the world sailing boats. Whilst I was there they had a maritime festival on also in the same area. A really interesting day – seeing the scale of construction of the massive U-boat pens and maintenance sheds was impressive. As I was looking into one of the U-Boat pens I was approachd by a Frenchman who spoke little English but wanted to tell me about both the pens and the history. We chated probably each understanding less than 25% of what the other wwsa saying but we had the same interests and we were both veterans.
The museum was based around a French Diesel Electric submarine which you were able to walk around with a audio guide. I had not realised that whilst the rest of France was liberated in mid 1944 – a pocket of German troops – some 23,000 held out in Lorient until May 1945 – nearly right at the end of the war. The town had been destroyed by bombing and attacks on the submarine pens non of which were damaged.
There was a lot of French Resistance activity with the horror accompanied with the reprisals from the Nazis. Post war the French kept the site a a major naval base employing a huge percentage of the population. When it closed in 1997 this left a massive hole in the economy and this site. Replacing the French Navy, a number of boat builder and international sailors set up business in the area. It has transformed itself into a much used and visited site and event location.
On the Saturday I visited the weekly market which I had been told was a grand affair! It was indeed; stalls of fresh produce, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, fish and meat, interspersed with stalls selling food on the go. I bought a small roast chicken, rotisserie potatoes and piece of French pork/gammon that had also been roasted. This lasted me several days! The potatoes were heated up in the frying pan and the gammon also warmed over the gas in butter, with French bread this made an excellent and hearty breakfast!
The last day in port I completed a deep clean of the boat and repacked some of the areas in preparation for the 2 crew members coming on board in a few days. There was some traditional sea shanties and music by the quayside that was coincident with the sail past of traditional ships that were part of the maritime festival.
Purrfect Tale 