Guérande is one of those small holiday resorts that packs a big punch. Situated just down the coast from La Baule, it is best-known for two things – salt and its medieval walls.

The two, of course, went together. Because of the importance of its salt trade and its location by the sea, medieval Guérande needed stout defences against invaders. Having been sacked by the Spanish in the mid-14th century, the town built stronger defence walls that took more than a century to complete! Today they are among the best-preserved medieval town walls in France, and are some 1,434 metres long and punctuated by four gates. These are the Vannetaise gate to the north, Bizienne to the west, Saillé to the south and the main gate, Saint-Michel, to the east.

What to See and do in Guérande

The medieval splendour of Guérande is celebrated each year – in late spring – with a weekend medieval festival. Here the small town goes back to the fifteenth century with the aid of costumes, a fair, a market, street entertainment such as juggling, tournaments and equestrian events, children’s events, and of course taverns and banquets. There is a costume parade on the Sunday morning.

The other major festival held in Guérande each year is Les Celtiques de Guérande, which as its name suggests is a cultural event devoted to all things Celtic. Though the Loire Atlantique is not (currently) part of the Brittany region in administrative terms, this area is considered by Bretons to be part of historic Brittany – and thus shares its Celtic cultural identity. The five days of the festival include music and songs, with acts coming from Ireland, Spain and other areas with Celtic traditions. Consult the event’s Facebook page for details of the next festival, which is traditionally held in August.

Eating out in Guérande

In addition to these festivals there are regular Thursday evenings of entertainment during the peak summer months, featuring street acts, guided tours and free concerts. As one might imagine there is no shortage of places to eat out or have a drink. A popular restaurant, and recommended by locals, is the Les Remp’Arts at 15 boulevard du nord. La Brasserie du Centre at 2 place de la Psalette also gets good reviews as a simple but good place to eat.

Guérande Salt

Away from the town, the big attraction is salt; Guérande is a big brand in salt in France. To the east of Guérande are the black marshes of the Brière peat bogs. But to the west are the so-called ‘Pays blanc’ or ‘white land’, so called because of the whiteness of the salt marshes.

In medieval times the salt industry made Guérande an important commercial and strategic centre. Though the salt trade diminished – due to silting of the water, taxes and competition from other areas – it has remained an important industry. Indeed, some of the salt works still in operation on the salt marshes are said to date back to the 9th century AD.

A salt marsh worker is known is French as a paludier who oversees the flow of seawater into the shallow crystallisation ponds where the salt crystals are formed. They have to know how to adjust water levels in the various ponds, and be able to read the weather conditions. In the summer harvest time they can transport up to three tons of salt a day.

Visit the local museum the Musée des Marais Salants at Place Adèle Pichon, Batz-sur-Mer, wander around the fascinating Terre de Sel (‘Salt Land’) in the hamlet of Pradel outside Guérande (which offers tours and a chance to buy salt), or go to see one of the independent producers.

Getting to Guérande

By air
The airport at Nantes is about 75km away. NAVairport operates a shuttle service between the airport and Guérande, La Baule and Pornichet, via Saint Nazaire.

By train
The nearest station to Guérande is at la Baule, which is around three hours from Paris by train and 50 minutes from Nantes.

Photo 1 by shogunangel / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 2 by Stéphane D / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 3 by Gilbert Laszlo Kallenborn / CC BY 2.0 image cropped