Living in and visiting towns along La Charente

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I spent 5 weeks in a town called Rochefort, situated along the Charente River, to try and improve my limited knowledge of French and experience everyday life in the country.

Spending about 2 months in France was one of the things I had thought about doing during this trip. Mainly, because I wanted to be forced into speaking the language.

Before leaving on this trip, while I was in Chile I went to the French Consulate to see if there was any chance of getting a student visa to study French for a while. But that wasn't really an option as it was way too expensive to pay for courses. So I just let the idea hang for a while and see if any opportunities opened up during my travels.



And they did. While I was doing a 23 day trek around the Annapurna range in Nepal, I met a couple, CJ & Miriam (Dutch-Swiss) that had been traveling for a while, mainly doing volunteer work in different countries.

They told me about a website called Helpx (short for "Help Exchange"), which is a bit like the “Woofing” concept, but not just about organic farms, as it includes a wider range of places to work/stay at.

The website is used for people that can host travelers or volunteers in exchange for their work. So it’s a win-win for both parties and it’s mainly about a cultural exchange. I learned all this at the "Tilicho Lake Base Camp" where I stayed for three nights to walk up to the Tilicho Lake (allegedly the highest lake in the world).



While I was traveling in South Africa I thought about what I wanted to do for the next months and I thought about giving "Helpx" a try and see if it’d be possible to get a place to stay and work in France (with my tourist visa).

I signed up and set up a profile page and then took the time to look at profiles of people I was interested in staying with. It turned out that my first choice (and to the only person I wrote to) wrote back saying I could stay with her.

My host was Anik Herault, a woman that lives in a property where about 10 other people live. She’s a member of different online communities like "Helpx", "La Route des Sel", "Couchsurfing", etc. So she has people coming and going all the time.



The people that stay permanently or for long periods of time at Anik's place are from all kinds of backgrounds and nationalities. At the time when I stayed there were: Cynthia, German student, Paul and Aurora, a landscape architect and his girlfriend, Sergio and Emilio, two Portuguese brothers who worked in construction, Pascal, a French guy who works only when he needs to, Michele, an Italian looking for a job, Jens and Genevieve, a Swedish and a Canadian who were working in the reconstruction of a 1700’s French Frigate (L’Hermione), François, a retired doctor, Tiffany, a midwife, plus a bunch of people going in and out.

Anik is very active and social and always has something going on keeping her busy and she usually included me in her activities.



I arrived to Rochefort from Laval on a Sunday evening and Anik picked me up at the train station. Right after she took me for a short tour of the town and we went to have a look at the old shipyard.

After arriving at the house I had dinner with Emilio (one of the Portuguese brothers) and Anik. And that was the start of my 5 week doing “Help Exchange” (and my first experience of this particular community).



My stay at Anik's place was very enjoyable. I was put in the first floor of an adobe construction and had my own room with a sink. I shared a bathroom with two other people.

Anik's property is pretty big and there are several constructions with their own bathrooms and kitchens. So, despite the amount of people that live there and that come and go, if you want to live your life and not be bothered, it’s pretty easy because in general the place is pretty quiet. And if you want to socialize, no problem at all, as everyone is very open and friendly.



I've got to admit that it was great to have my own space and somewhere where I could permanently take the things out of the backpack for more than a few days. I had a lot of time for myself and used a lot of it for reading and writing.

The arrangement with Anik was that I had to work for about 3 hours a day, 5 or 6 times a week in exchange for the room and a meal a day. It wasn't strict though; sometimes I would have the day off and sometimes I would work longer. It was very flexible and relaxed in that sense.

Most days I would have lunch or dinner with Anik and usually the Portuguese brothers. On other occasions, with Jens and Genvieve or with whoever was available.



Rochefort (with an actual population of about 25,000 people) was built as a “new” town, which means the buildings had to follow set regulations of construction.

It was chosen in 1665 to serve as a place of defense, shelter and supply for the French Navy (as the French Crown couldn't depend on the nearby, rebellious Protestant city of La Rochelle).

One year later, one of the most important buildings of the town was built: the “Corderie Royale”, which is where all the rigging was made for the warships. At the time it was also the longest building in Europe.

The town has had long standing relation with the Navy and is very maritime oriented. There is an old navy cemetery, one of the first naval surgeons school, navy libraries, etc. There’s an old arsenal and the Corderie royale is now a museum. The shipyard is being used to reconstruct a replica of the “Hermione”, a light frigate that was built in 1779 and that Lafayette sailed to North America to help in the Independence War against the British.



Over the course of the following weeks I started helping around the house doing different things: painting and upgrading a volet (window shutters, very typical in France), sanding and painting a couple of windows in the ceiling, painting the main door, etc.

Also, helping Allan (a good friend of Anik) restoring a “carlet” which he purchased a few months before in a place called “Port des Barques”. This is a tiny town along the river and only has a population of about 1800 people. It was a 15 minute drive to get there.

The "carlet" is a "recreational" construction that is very typical of this area, but I don’t know if they’re common in other parts of France. During my stay I spent most of my time working in that particular place, rather than in Anik’s house.

The carlets are square contructions built on wooden pillars. They're connected to land via a wooden walkway. They’re used for recreational fishing using square nets that are raised and lowered with a manual winch. The tide change in the river is quite big and the nets can only be used in high tide. The way to fish is just lowering them down and leaving them for some time, raise them and see if there’s anything in the net. If not, you just repeat the process.

We tried it a few times using chicken bones as bait and caught several small crabs that ended in a fish soup. Besides that, not much. I think that a lot of people (including Allan) use the place just as a getaway place rather than strictly for fishing.

Anyway, as I said before, I did most of my work there, which included helping to replace a section of the walkway, nailing, painting the interior, etc. With Allan I spoke most of the time in English, as it was much, much easier to communicate (although I tended to speak more French with him when Anik was around).



Over the course of the weeks I went with Anik to several places, as she invited me to most events she had. One night I went to the house of friends of hers that are movie fanatics. They have their own “8 people cinema” at home, with special seats and everything. And a collection of about 5,000 films.

The film we saw that day was based on a true story about an English man (Donald Crowhurst) who competed (and tried to cheat) on the first solo sail race around the world. The movie was French, but inspired on this story. So the main character was a Frenchman that sailed off the port of St. Malo (film link).



Another night I went to have dinner at other friends of Anik and there were about 10 people. By then I had just arrived and definitely couldn't follow in on the conversations, so I was limited to hearing and trying to catch a phrase or two.

That same day Allan and I had to kill some time before going to the house of Anik's friends, so he took me on a short tour around Fouras, a very nice beach town which is popular during the summer and is also along the Charente river.



In Rochefort there’s a school in which free French lessons are given twice a week and of course I didn't miss out on this opportunity. They were quite good (usually we weren't more than 3 or 4 in the class) and it was an excellent complement for my learning, as it focused a lot on grammar. And the rest of the time I was hearing the language and trying to speak it.



On days when I had time off and it wasn't raining I went walking around the town, which has some really nice areas. The walk along the Charente is really nice and I also visited the arsenal, the "Hermione", the marinas, the buildings from the 17th century, the green areas and the Corderie Royale, etc. The town itself is very homogenous in the way the houses and buildings were constructed.



I went one day especially to see L’Hermione and had a tour with Jens (the Swedish who was staying at Anik's place), so I had a personalized tour.

Jens had worked in Spain in a similar project (his specialty is preparing the rigging), so he was contacted to work a few months per year in this project.

"L'Hermione" was a 12 pounder, Concorde-class frigate that was finished being built in 1779 for Lafayette to sail to North America and help the colonists in their independence war against Britain. Years later, after having served in different conflicts, it ran aground just off Croisic in western France.



In 1992, members of the "Centre International de la Mer" in France, during a dinner (which apparently had copious amounts of wine) began talking about the idea to build a replica of the ship and recreate the trip to North America. The construction began in 1997 and is scheduled to be finished and to set sail to North America in 2015.

The interesting part about "L'Hermione Project" is that it has been been built using the original building techniques used 200 years ago. At that time it took 300 people about 6 months to build this kind of ship (including a lot of prisoners).

They even had to reconstruct the blueprints; historians have worked with naval architects on this, based on old models. And they have built it from scratch using the old methods whenever possible. When you stand on the ship you get to dimension the enormity and complexity of the project. It's pretty impressive.






Other towns along the Charente river

The Charente runs for 381km and there are several cities, towns and villages along it. The main commercial activity here is the harvesting and extraction of oysters and mussels.

The other places I went to near Rochefort were La Rochelle (described on a different post), Echailles, Brouage, L’Eguille, Fort Lupin, etc.



Échillais is just in front of Rochefort, crossing the Charente river. Nowadays there's a proper bridge connecting both banks. But before, the way to transport carriages and cars was via the "Pont Transbordeur". This type of bridge with a moving platform. Nowadays it's still in use for people and bicycles.

I went there one day (it only took about 20 minutes to get to the bridge) and paid to cross the river on the "Pont Transbordeur". There are only eight of these type of bridges in the world, so for me it was interesting to use it. It was designed by an architect by the name of Ferdinand Arnodin.

The town itself has not much going on, except a Roman church of the 13th Century. The day I went there I walked around for a couple of hours and that was it.



Brouage is a very small fortified village that has very interesting history. I went there with Anik because she wanted to see a flea market that is held there only once a year.

This town was built in 1555 and used as a port. Between 1630 and 1640 it was fortified and used by Cardinal Richelieu as a bastion to fight La Rochelle.

In the 1700's the port was rendered useless and the town was stranded.

This is also the birth place of Simon de Champlain, who was one of the first French settlers in Canada.

We only spent less than 2 hours in the town (although it was enough) and it was very cool for me to walk on top of the walls that surround the village and also seeing the flea market below. Besides the market there were also food stands and people dressed up with medieval costumes walking around.





L'Eguille is a very small town and I drove past it with Anik because she wanted to visit a friend there. The small port was interesting to see, with each boat having its own little jetty. and the town was very well kept.



Fort Lupin is not a town, but an old fortification that's in the area and nowadays it's a private property. It was built in 1689 to protect the access to Rochefort and its arsenal.

Anik took me and Emilio to have a look at it (but only from the outside as it was closed). It's still a great place to see. It's also by the bank of the Charente river.





And that is about it for my stay in Rochefort. I did go on a long weekend to Bordeaux and twice to La Rochelle, but those places deserved different posts altogether.



On the 15th of November I left the town and took a train to Brest, starting a 1 week trip to Bretagne.

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Photos

L'Hermione
With Jens on the tour around the ship

Comments

[Andres]

saludos desde Lonquen
Hola Dani, Muy interesante lo de Hepx, un concepto que valoriza el ganarse el techo y pan a traves del trabajo,; que buena experiencia. este fin de semana fue la votación por lo que tuvimos un fin de semana muy civico. Me imagino que ya sabrás que hay 2da vuelta el 15 de diciembre. Todos bien por acá esperando tu regreso. un abrazo Andres