Well this was a find thru a collegue at work. Having lots of locals around is a big help especially if you want to know the real French side of things. And by locals I meant native of the region not just French. This is the case of this post, while talking about the bounties of our region a friend who lived in a nearby town told me to meet her and her family there with mine so we were off on a Saturday.
The town is a picturesque quaint beach resort of the nice and chic in Batz sur Mer, dept 44 of the Loire Atlantique in Pays de la Loire region. Old Brittany….
A bit on the history of the Port Saint MIchel in Batz sur Mer where we were!
The Port Saint-Michel is a marina and beach in the town of Batz-sur-Mer. It is shown more as a harbor but it has a small beach very nice that is very popular with locals. We went to the harbor port Saint Michel where we had our lunch at the Café de la Plage, wonderful family service, where I had a cassoulet de la mer or sea casserole of shrimp, scallops and fish with a nice vegetable lettuce and a bottle of Kerisec cider, the others had different servings from mussels with Roquefort cheese , tagliatelles bolognaise, and four cheeses pizzas, desserts from bounty coconuts ice cream to banana splits , and of course another bottle of Kerisec cider brut. The price we could not know as our friendly friends lol!! went ahead and pay for all five of us the bill !!! yes nice friends! Batz tourist office on the café: https://en.ot-batzsurmer.fr/le-cafe-de-la-plage.html?origine=switchLangue
The Port Saint-Michel, sometimes wrongly called Saint-Michel beach, is a natural port protected from a breakwater, nowadays used for the parking of pleasure boats. The site’s sandy beach bordered by rocks is the closest to the city center. Yellow beach huts take place there during the summer season. It is one of the three sandy beaches of the town, with those of Govelle and Valentin
The site is the old fishing port of the village of Batz. The water hole, called tripe pulse, recalls the old sardine activity of the place. From 1881 to 1907, the bay was home to a sardine cannery – the land was awarded in 1849 – under the direction of a Nantes canned food company, the “Benoist et compagnie” cannery, known locally as Confiserie. It is located on land delimited by the Route de l’Atlantique, the Allée de la Banche and the Allée de Basse-Love. Local fishermen, after having docked their sailing boat along the small pier – known as the Madeleine – north of the Port Saint-Michel, deliver the sardines by the Allée de la Banche. Dried in the sun, they are then cooked in olive oil, then put in boxes, welded by hand by bow welders workers. The activity stopped at the end of the 19C, and the hangars were demolished around 1907, to give way to the villa “les Violettes” With the arrival of the fashion for sea bathing and tourism in the region, seaside villas were built in Bourg-de-Batz, as we say then, from the middle of the 19C, by the Nantes middle class, who settled in the vicinity of Saint-Michel port.
Standing on the cliff, a 3 m megalith called the long stone or menhir Saint-Michel, served as a landmark, for daytime maritime navigation.
Some ways to get there , mind you only been there by car road driving. The rest is for information only
The LILA Presqu’ïle transport network crisscrosses the entire Guérande Peninsula and allows you to travel as you wish. Tickets are on sale at the Tourist Office. Buses run all year round. You have the Bus Lila – Line 5: Le Croisic ⇒ Batz-sur-Mer ⇒ Le Pouliguen ⇒ Guérande and the Bus Lila – Line 6: Le Croisic ⇒ Batz-sur-Mer ⇒ Le Pouliguen ⇒ La Baule This is on line 5 schedule: Destineo Lila presqu’ile Guerand to Batz sur Mer
By train from Nantes, the TER stops at Batz-sur-Mer. From Paris: the TGV links Paris to Nantes in 2 hours. Allow an additional 1 hour to reach the Guérande Peninsula. The nearest station is Le Croisic at 3km. The TER pays de la Loire on example schedule to Batz sur Mer: TER pays de la loire on Batz sur Mer
A shuttle service is provided by NAVairport between Nantes Atlantique Airport and Guérande, La Baule, Pornichet and Saint-Nazaire. Shuttles every 30 minutes to reach the airport from Nantes train station. The naviairport webpage is here in French: Navairport shuttle Batz sur Mer
We came in by taking the expressway or voie express N165 direction Nantes. The follow direction Herbignac and Guérande on the road D774 we passed by city center Guérande because our friend lived there and we follow then the first time but you can avoid the city center taking the D33 then the salt marches on the D92 to Batz sur Mer. Then walk alone Boulevard de la Mer bordering the ocean just sublime!
By the road, there is strick rules such as street parking is allow from March 31 to September 30, Monday to Saturday from 9h to 12h30 and from 14h30 to 17h30, the maximum authorized duration is 1:03 for the following streets: Rue des Etaux; Rue Charles de Gaulle, Place du Garnal, Rue Jean XXIII; and Grande Rue. And from July 1 to August 31, Monday to Saturday , rue du Croisic (Parking de la Poste), from 9h to 12h30 and from 14h30 to 17h30, the maximum authorized duration is 30 minutes. From July 1 to August 31, for Place Honoré de Balzac, on market days (Monday and Friday), parking is limited to 1 hour from 9h. to 13h. By Port St Michel parking is free
Some webpages to help you plan your trip here and worth it, are
The tourist office of Batz sur Mer on Port St Michel in English: Tourirst office Batz sur Mer on port St Michel
The local La Baule Guérande tourist office on Batz sur Mer Port St Michel in English: Tourist office La Baule Guerande on port St Michel in Batz sur Mer
My favorite webpage on beaches in France plagetv on St Michel beach or port in English: Plagestv on St Michel beach Batz sur Mer
And there you go need to start planning now, beach time is just around the corner and we should be out by then. Enjoy Batz sur Mer and the Port St Michel beach.
And remember, happy travels, good healh, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 
Leave a Reply