Port 90 La Rochelle, France

by Ed · June 9, 2022

Bonjour! Comment vas-tu? (Hello! How are you?)

We woke early to see it was gray, cold, and windy! Land was not exciting.

Then a tug came to assist us. I love watching these guys! Those boats are so maneuverable!

The tugs swing us around, so we get a view of this long bridge. The wind is strong this morning, coming straight across the water!

Our pier is out in the middle of nowhere. Piles of sand are everywhere! The tour buses are arriving.

We are both on a tour to walk around La Rochelle. We get to go through a tiny terminal to get to the bus!

We take a detour to see the old German submarine pens that were built during World War II. You may have already seen this one! Have you watched the original “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? This structure was used for the scene when the submarine arrived and Indy jumped off and stole a German’s uniform.

Our tour guide informed us her husband was one of the extras in this sequence! This is actually a lock to the harbor to control the tide variation. It was covered so the subs wouldn’t be sitting ducks for an hour while the locks equalized the water level.

Facing that one large building is this series of ten pens where the subs would park. These all had double ceilings to absorb bomb blasts!

As we pass the small boat harbor it is clear we’re at low tide again!

The bus lets us off at the harbor of the old town. We start at this old gate! Those are cannon balls on top.

The crosswalks here are wonderful! They point you to some of the main attractions and tell you how long it should take to get there!

The tour guide, Claudina, ignores this church, but I run back across the street to grab this photo. This is the White Ladies Chapel of La Rochelle!

In the harbor there is a soaring lighthouse and a ferris wheel! Claudina says the ferris wheel has been here about ten years.

This is all that remains of the ramparts that surrounded the city and let La Rochelle be known as a city. Once the ramparts came down La Rochelle lost its “city” designation and the political benefits that provided, and became a town under the control of the King.

The tower on the right used to be the same height as the one on the left. It was used as a gunpowder magazine, and it exploded. It was rebuilt to the current height due to lacking funds.

It looks like two beautiful churches overlook the harbor, but the building on the left is actually part of the rampart – it is the Lantern Tower. It is a gothic lighthouse! It was also used as a prison. On the right is the Clocher Saint-Jean, a medieval church from the same time period as the ramparts. If it had a bell in the tower, it is apparently no longer there.

The tower here is the Grosse Horloge, the gate tower into the heart of town. It is a beautiful structure, and on the other side are a myriad of stores, shops, and restaurants!

We start at the Church of Saint Sauveur.

We cross the bridge and wind around some construction fences. to arrive at the church.

The interior is relatively bright, with a lot of beautiful stained glass windows high and low! There are two ship models, one on either side of the nave. I realize as I’m typing that I forgot to examine their Stations of the Cross!

We move on to the only Protestant church in town. At one time the mayor had outlawed any church that wasn’t Catholic, so this one closed down, but eventually smarter heads prevailed and this church was allowed to reopen.

A lot of the buildings were built with arcades to allow people to walk in the protection of the buildings, and to keep them off the streets! It is a great idea, but it makes the streets seem deserted and dark!

A lot of stores have cute markers instead of just a sign or shingle! And in this shot you can see this is what is called a “half-timber” house, but the timbers are covered with slates to protect them from the elements. I’m not a fan of the slate look. I prefer the elegance of the wood beams!

The bar above had a ship sign, and this fabric store has a different approach! This bike is lovely! But they shouldn’t leave it out in the rain!

And a flower shop around the corner has this!

There is a different form of street art in this town. The UNESCO club of La Rochelle set up this tableau of six figures featuring the face of St George. You see five here, and the music conductor on the wall behind me is the sixth, but the only part remaining was the front part of his torso from his legs to his arms waving a conductor’s baton. No head.

This is Jean Guiton, a ship-owner who became the admiral of the fleet and successfully battled against Spain.

This interesting castle-like building is the Town Hall!

Inside is this beautiful staircase…

…and a wide courtyard lined on one side with a fascinating short-column portico, with beautifull ceiling ornamentation! There was a major fire here (I think it was 1993) and the photos on the right of the courtyard show the restoration work in progress.

Sidewalks all around this area have this painted on them: MNM. When I took this photo I didn’t know that this is our next stop!

We don’t tour the museum, but we stop in its courtyard. There is an interesting statue here!

It is Toussant Louverture, a former slave who rose to become the Governor of Haiti, here reading the Constitution of St Domingue! This statue was intended for inside the museum, but was left outside so everyone could see it without having to pay entrance fees! It has a social justice message.

Across the street is this excellent world map! It is chipped out of a concrete wall, and it appears it is really an attempt to cover up damage to the wall! Africa, South America and North America all have deep chips in the wall. The map was strategically placed to place those in the center of the continents! Nicely done!

We arrive at a plaza that has a carousel in the center, and this building, the Cathedral of La Rochelle, on the side.

This cathedral is a beautifully constructed but a little dark. There are gorgeous stained glass images all around the church! It’s worth taking a stroll through this cathedral if only to see the stained glass!

Back in the square, the carousel is lovely and it works!

A few blocks away is the market! There is an open air segment where we bought cherries for us…

…and the old Marche market building that had beautiful new meat and cheese stands inside where we bought some gifts! Hi, Joy!

This is Eugene Fromentin, a French Painter and writer. There is no explanation for the rider who is trying to hand Fromentin a gun – maybe I need to read his books to find out if this is a character of his?

As I leave the town I pass through the Gross Horloge gate again.

On the waterfront is this statue of Victor Guy DuPerre. He is from La Rochelle and was a French naval officer and Admiral of France.

Back on ship we spent a horrible eight hours of banging and rocking as the winds and waves hammered the ship, rocking it and banging us against the dock. But we finally get our tug to help us leave at 10:30 PM!

Everything smooths out once we are away from the pier! Whew!

Our end of day assessment is that La Rochelle is not very memorable. All of the buildings are the same cream color. Very few buildings stand out as spectacular. We don’t need to come back here, unless it’s a gateway to see something else in France!