And continuing my saga of revising old posts and updating text and pictures , I take you to the citadel city of Port Louis. A very nice quant place, hope you enjoy the post and thanks for reading my revisions.
Well this one is not far from where we live and we have visited several time. We saw news of the high tides coming around in the area along the western coast of France, and the urge to go out, we pick this nearby town again this morning. This is Port Louis, and it is only 25 kms from my house in the Morbihan dept 56 of my lovely Bretagne.
Of course, we come by car, but do not take the autoroutes or N when possible to see more and pay less tolls even if in Bretagne there are none! We use the D33 direction Nostang, Riantec, and Port Louis entering by the D781 and coming out from it .
Really ,the main urge to come here is the Citadelle and its museum of the Indies. It is an impressive fortress and must visit if in the area. However, we have seen it so we move on. The museum of the Marine is a wonderful recollection of the seafaring French/Breton and its seafaring skills. More here: http://www.musee-marine.fr/musee-national-de-la-marine-port-louis
The other museum inside the Citadelle ,that covers more of the compagnie des indies and its travels to far régions such as Africa, Asia, and the Americas. More here: https://musee.lorient.bzh/museum-english-version/
The Citadelle de Port-Louis was built in the 16C by the Spanish and modified in the 17C by the French. The two museums above are inside of it now.
There is a nice Church of Notre Dame de l’Assomption, done between 1660-1670, and renovated in 1835, located at the Place Notre-Dame. The Church was burned by the wild crowds in 1910 and rebuilt later. From the old church we see the facade from the renaissance pseudo classic , it has a square belltower pierce by bays decorated with pilastres. The bell dates from 1853.
The port Locmalo is very picturesque and part of the old trade on sardines fishing here. You see the fishing harbor and the Chapelle Saint Pierre done in 1553 , rebuilt in 1859 ,and very much appreciated by the fisherman. Move on to see the Grand Poudriére built 1750-1752 or big powder house, to keep that old ammunition all along the ramparts leading to the citadelle. See the harbor or Port de la Pointe, a tuna fishing harbor since 1902. The harbor with its pleasure boats and the ria boat service to Lorient from the embarkadére is very nice. The harbor info on the capitainerie is here : https://www.ports-paysdelorient.fr/fr/ports/le-port-de-port-louis
You have a nice Grande Plage or big beach here good in summer with plenty of changing rooms and restauration on the beach next to the citadelle. along the garden of the Mail you will see a somber reminder of the atrocities of WWII with a monument to the 69 résistants killed by the Nazis here.
The city of Port Louis on its heritage: http://www.ville-portlouis.fr/64-decouverte/488-cite-d-art-et-de-patrimoine.html
The tourist office of Lorient and South Bretagne on Port Louis: https://www.lorientbretagnesudtourisme.fr/fr/immanquables/port-louis/
The tourist office of Bretagne on Port Louis: https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/southern-brittany-morbihan-gulf/port-louis/
And there you go a brief tour of a nice citadelle town, more info and photos in subsequent posts on Port Louis. Hope you enjoy the introduction.
And remember , happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 