This was a special post on road warrior visit to a friend from work in Guérande, and while there visited the nearby coastal towns of Batz sur Mer,and Le Croisic. A wonderful coastal trip of my belle France just south of me in old Bretagne now part of the Pays de la Loire region. Let’s ride out this one together shall we!
Of course, this is in dept 44 of the Loire Atlantique and have written previous posts on these towns in my blog. It was a rainy day, cloudy, and cool at 11C or about 55F , but like said we had some friends in Guérande inviting us for lunch and we could not resist. We went to three wonderful towns where of course we got hook and have come back (see posts). These were Guérande, Batz-sur-Mer, and Le Croisic.
We visited before Guérande on our own and had pleasant surprises of the town and its ramparts. We took the expressway N165 to the exit 17 La Baule, La Roche Bernard, and took the D774 direction Herbignac/Guérande. As we got there early we walked a bit before meeting our friends in their house. In Guérande, we walked around the ramparts and the wonderful Porte Vannetais, Porte Saint Michel, and Tour de la Gaudinais walking into the old town to take a look again at the Church Saint Aubin.
On our way out to Batz-sur-Mer we passed by the museum of salt marshes or Musée des Marais Salants and the wonderful salt marshes you see along the road is wonderful. This is the famous salt of Guérande, world famous. The museum webpage: https://www.museedesmaraissalants.fr/accueil
We continue our journey now with our friends into the harbor area of Batz sur Mer, and saw the nice Church and tower of Saint-Guénolé built in the 13C of gothic Breton style with a tower 70 meters high and nice views of the ocean. 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!
We , then continue on by car to Le Croisic the end of the peninsula where the sea is king and we just the servants. There was an exposition going on at the house of the rescue or Maison du Sauvetage right by the harbor. The fishing harbor and the pleasure boat harbor are sublime picturesques beautiful. And the colorful train station or gare du Croisic right by the harbor!
Some webpages to help you plan your trip here are:
The Guérande tourist office: http://en.ot-guerande.fr/
The Batz-sur-Mer tourist office: https://en.ot-batzsurmer.fr/
The Le Croisic tourist office: http://www.tourisme-lecroisic.fr/en/
We found for a Sunday plenty of parking for free in all the towns. In all, a short but pleasant trip to the beautiful old Bretagne. The sea at its best, nice area we have been back!!!! See my other posts on these towns and more pictures.
And remember happy travels, good health,and many cheers to all!!!
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