La Rochelle - boats, castles, and brasseries

La Rochelle is the closest mainland town to Ile de Re.  Like Ile de Re, it also seems to be a huge tourist destination with British and French families.  La Rochelle's signature feature is its fortified harbor.  The inner harbor entrance is flanked by two stone towers which have guarded the entrance for centuries.  There used to be a chain that ran between the two towers that could be raised to block passage into the harbor.

A with our daily "pain au chocolat" breakfast in front of the Saint Nicholas (r) and Chain (l) Towers

Today, the harbor is filled with pleasure boats and the edges are lined with brasseries and restaurants with nautical names like "Le Winch," "Le Sextant," "Les Regates" etc.  It is a bit like Newport with castles and cobblestones.

On our first day we explored the Saint Nicholas Tower (the taller of the 2 towers in the first picture of this post).  The Saint Nicholas Tower was used as a royal residence in addition to a fortification and had inner rooms surrounded by mazes of passageways and staircases, all in stone.  The tower was built on piles driven into the harbor floor to support the stone foundations.  During construction some of the piles began to sink resulting in the bottom 2 floors of the tower tilting (the floors inside are actually sloped).  They corrected mid-construction so the top couple floors are straight.  This tower has a double spiral staircase that allows two people to pass each other going between floors without ever seeing each other.  This results in an extremely steep staircase however.

A negotiating the steep double spiral staircase.

At the top of the tower you could look out between the crenelations (the "teeth" at the top of a classic castle) for great views of La Rochelle.

View of range beacon lighthouse and La Rochelle inner harbor from top of the Saint Nicholas Tower

C and view of the Lantern Tower from the top of the Saint Nicholas Tower 

After exploring the Saint Nicholas Tower we set out on a walk along the edge of the outer harbor, not really sure where it would lead.  Around a bend, we came upon one of the largest marinas we have ever seen.  The marina of Minimes has over 3,000 berths and they are currently expanding the marina to add about another 30% to its area.  Just past the marina we discovered a little beach and a good spot for a sandwich for lunch.

Minimes Marina

Lesson: don't eat lunch over your camera - A lost a piece a red pepper that fell right into the viewfinder :(

After a long walk back, we relaxed with some beer overlooking the harbor.

Later we visited the other two towers in La Rochelle.  First the Lantern Tower, which looks like a church steeple but was originally built as a beacon for ships, and then was turned into a (very vertical) prison.  Many of the prisoners passed the time carving writing and pictures into the stone walls of the tower.  Some are quite elaborate such as the ship below.

Carved prisoner "graffiti" in the Lantern Tower

Again there were great views from the top of the tower.  The Chain Tower is the shorter tower just behind A

The Chain Tower had an exhibit about immigration to "New France" (Montreal, Quebec, New Orleans) from La Rochelle.  Though the exhibit was all in French, we learned that La Rochelle was the first (and main) port many of the immigrants left from and the place where many came back to after the English expelled the Acadians.  It was interesting to learn about the French settlement of the New World since, having grown up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, so much of our elementary education focused on the English Puritan experiences there.

La Rochelle's Saint Nicholas Tower at night