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Town Hall & Bell Tower
Very difficult to photograph due to confined distance Tuesday 28th May
Today I took the train from Guipry-Messac to Redon, downstream to the south. This is only about a 20 minute train trip, Redon is actually closer to Guipry-Messac than Rennes is. Redon is a middle-sized town, but its importance lay in its port, and its role as an inland navigation crossroads. It lies close to the tidal limit of the Vilaine, at the point where the Nantes-Brest Canal crosses the Vilaine, and where the River Oust joins the Vilaine. All these factors made it an important port, tax and customs post, and boat building place. As well as the canal and rivers, it has a basin port which accesses both the canal and the Vilaine. It's all quite complicated, and there is a real profusion of locks, docks, and bridges, including swing bridges and lift bridges, all clustered around the port section.
The town centre features some interesting architecture, including the impressive town hall, which stands next to the tall bell tower, once part of the abbey church but now freestanding due to fire destroying part of the church. Behind these buildings is the huge old abbey, featuring a forest of flying buttresses around the church
sanctuary at one end.
In the town there are a number of medieval buildings, especially along the cobbled main street. Following this street down, one comes to the locks and bridges where the Nantes-Brest canal cuts across the town and also has a cross intersection with the River Vilaine. It was interesting to work out the arrangement of all the locks, canals, bridges and docks, and a map was certainly needed to figure it out. The weather deteriorated a bit in the mid-afternoon, with clouds rolling in, a cold wind and a few rain showers.
Crossing the canal brings one onto the 'island' that is the port. Narrow streets lined with old stone buildings, and on one side the river and on the other the basin port, now lined with pleasure craft. Here I found the Musée de la Batellerie, which features the story of the canal, the locks and lock-keepers, the boatmen, and the history of navigation along the rivers and canals of Brittany. It was very interesting, particularly the story of the Nantes-Brest Canal, the construction of which was urged on by Napoleon, to avoid using the open sea for military transport, the sea which Great
Britain dominated. The canal was an enormous undertaking, which included crossing several ranges of hills, up to 185m in height just inland from Brest. Over 200 locks were built along the canal, all of which required maintenance and operation personnel. The western part of the canal was closed in the 1920s when a dam was built for hydro power instead, but the eastern part of the canal is still in use, these days basically for pleasure craft.
Redon is also a bit of a rail junction, with trains to Rennes, Nantes and Vannes. I took the Rennes train back to Guipry-Messac after an interesting day.
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