Visiting France's Atlantic seabord sailing capital

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I went to la Rochelle two times while I stayed in a nearby town called Rochefort for 5 weeks.

The first one was when Anik (my host in Rochefort) took me to La Rochelle to see a Russian tall ship and the second one when I went to see a film festival.



La Rochelle was founded in the 10th Century and became an important port in the 12th Century. The main activities of the city were maritime trade and commerce. La Rochelle has had a very interesting history; including being the Knights Templar’s largest base in the Atlantic, having been under English Rule, having participated in the 100 Years War, becoming protestant and having suffered at least 2 sieges in its early history, the last one by Cardinal Richelieu. It had booms and declines, moments of great wealth and times of despair. During the Second World War it was utilized by the Germans as a submarine base and it was the last city that was liberated by the allies in 1945.

Nowadays La Rochelle maintains a lot of its former architecture and is a very picturesque city, very well worth visiting and walking around.



Just as I wrote on the title of this post, La Rochelle is known as "France's western seaboard sailing capital". It's easy to see why when you arrive in the town as it's closely related to the see. It’s great to walk the "Old Port" (Vieux Port) and the remains of the old city. There are several marinas and the day I went there were a lot of sailboats out at sea and also quite a few windsurfers.

One of the main reasons to visit La Rochelle the first time was to go see a Russian tall ship called "Shtandart". It's a replica of a Russian frigate from the 18th Century built by decree of the Tsar Peter I, as part of his plan to gain domain over the Baltic Sea.

The Shtandart replica was finished being built in 1999 and has since served as a touristic ship with a permanent crew of 10 and about 30 trainees (tourists).



We drove from Rochefort to La Rochelle and it only took us about 30 minutes to get there (same time that it takes going by train). Anik went with her son and his girlfriend who were visiting for a few days.

The ship was berthed in the "Quai d'Honneur". We went on board and had a look on the deck, the crew's quarters and the captain's cabin. The "Shtandart" sailed off to Bilbao a few days later. It was the ship's first navigation in the Atlantic Ocean.

After the visit I went by myself to have a walk around the city and decided to stay longer than the others and return to Rochefort by train.

I started going by the "Quai Valin", then along the "Quai Duperré" and the Cours des Dames. It was a Sunday, so there were plenty of people walking around; and the city center was very lively with street performers, street vendors, etc.

Then I went past the Two Towers (Les Tours du Port) that marked the entrance to the Old Port, then along the "Esplanade Saint Jean D'Acre" and then all along the coast.

I turned back in a park and retraced my steps back to esplanade. There I continued along the "Rue sur les murs" which I really liked and arrived back at one of the towers.

After that I covered part of the old city and then I arrived at the "shopping streets", which are still part of the old city and good to walk by.

Then I went walking along the Allée des Tamaris to arrive at the big marina at Quai Marillac. The sun was beginning to set at the time and it was a great to end the walking tour.

After that I went to the train station, got a ticket to Rochefort (about 6 Euros) and as I had to wait for about 1 hour, I went to get something to eat. After that, the 30 minute train ride and walk for about 20 minutes from the train station in Rochefort to get to Anik's house.



My second time in La Rochelle was a few weeks later and one day before leaving Rochefort for good.

I was told by Anik that during four days (starting on a Thursday) there was a festival of adventure sports films. This year was the 10th edition of the festival.

It's a great idea and they select films done during the year (mostly by French people) in different parts of the world. There are some really amazing ones.

I looked at a brochure and the films looked really interesting. If I hadn't had to leave Rochefort, I would've probably gone 2 or more days to the festival.



I left Rochefort in the morning and took the train to La Rochelle. The festival was being held at the "Espace Encan", right next to the Aquarium of La Rochelle. I arrived early (about 2 hours before the festival begun) and after getting the information I needed I went to the tourist office to ask how I could get to a place called "La Pallice" and then about a "German Bunker" that was opened just this year (2013). Then I had time for a short walk around the old part of the city.

After getting the information and just before going to the film festival, I grabbed a light lunch which I ate on the way.

The first film I went to was at 1pm (it wasn't really a film). It was a presentation of a "bicycle, 'round the world trip" that a group of young French guys (they started when they were around 22 years old) had done for 3 years, passing through all the continents (even Antarctica).

The presentation lasted for about 30 minutes and they started by showing a 5 minute video of their trip, which was very impressive. Then they talked about the trip itself; how they prepared themselves for it, pros and cons of traveling in a group, etc. All in French of course and I was amazed to have grasped about 60-70%!o(MISSING)f the presentation.

In total the group was made up of 5 friends, but only 3 made the whole trip. At the moment they're preparing to publish a book and they have their own website (Solidreams).

At the end of the presentation I went over to talk to one of them to congratulate them on their trip and for the presentation. When he asked me where I was from and I told him "from Chile", he told me that his father was Chilean and we started speaking in Spanish. We talked a bit about their trip and he also asked me about mine.



Then I went to the city center to get on a bus to go to "La Pallice". La Pallice is Rochefort's new port. Why go there? It was used as a submarine base by the Germans during WWII. I really wanted to try and visit it.

I had read in blogs ("Enter the Wolf Pack", for example) about people who had managed to get in the port and walk around the installations, but a few years ago.

In one of the blogs, a group of guys got in avoiding the security checks and in the other blog I read they just "walked in". The old submarine base is inside the port and no people are allowed to go in without passing through the security checks.

The base is not open to the public because it's still a sensitive topic in La Rochelle, especially for people that lived there during the war. La Rochelle was the last French city to be liberated by the allies.

Still, I went to La Pallice to see where it was and see if I was lucky enough to get into the U-Boat pens. The submarine base (the pens) is nowadays used by a few small French Navy ships (From what I could see they looked like coastguard vessels).

I walked around, but saw no place in which I could just walk in without having to show an authorization pass or something like that and in the end the "law abiding citizen in me" impeded me from doing something I could have regretted later.

Even knowing what the probable outcome of my visit was going to be, I was still very disappointed not to have been able to have a look inside the base. Especially after seeing the photos that were uploaded in the "Enter the Wolf Pack" post.

Nevertheless I got to at least see the pens from outside and take photos from outside the fence, so it wasn't a total loss.

If anyone who reads this goes to La Pallice and manages to get into the U-Boat base, I'd love to read about it...



I got back on the bus to La Rochelle to make it to a few more films I wanted to see that day before returning to Rochefort.

Before going back to the festival I walked around the old part of La Rochelle to search for the address of a German Bunker ("Le Bunker") that was recently discovered this year. I didn't have time to visit it, but at least I wanted to see where it was (8 Rue des Dames). It's a bunker that was used as headquarters for a German Admiral and the U-Boat Commanders. It was maintained pretty much intact for 70 years until it was rediscovered and turned into a museum. From what I could read in the reviews though, it needs English translations, as most of it is in French.



Well, I went back to the Film Festival and I saw two more films. The first one, "Terminus Boréal", about a team of 5 French people (+ the film maker) who did a two week polar excursion doing randonnée (ski touring in English) in the northern part of Sweden. The film had great footage, including some amazing shots of the northern lights during the night.



The other film I saw ("Nath & Co") was about an extreme skier that while skiing on the mountains with a couple pf friends, got trapped in an avalanche. The accident left him paraplegic. The film is about how he faced this with an extremely positive attitude and how he does his life now being totally self-sufficient and still leading a very sports-active life. It was very inspiring.



I didn't have time to stay and watch the last two films of the evening (I really wanted to see one called "North of the Sun"), because I had to catch the last train back to Rochefort. It was still very well worth the trip and I would recommend it to anyone in the area that has the chance to go there during next year.

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Photos

The Shtandart
Anik with her son and daughter in law