Pornic and La Fontaine aux Bretons

Underneath the Loire estuary lies a quiet little fishing town named Pornic. The center of town is by the port and the real stuff of life happens in yellow waterproof coveralls when the low tides leave boats stranded on the sandy bottom of the Loire.

When we visited Pornic looking for a sweater yesterday, it started raining and there were four fishermen scrubbing the keel of their boat. It was drizzling more than raining actually, drizzling being not uncommon in Bretagne regardless of seasons.

Fields are green and global warming does not translate in severe droughts.

This coast resembles the Northern Californian coast with cliffs and steep drops in the ocean but instead of deep green waters, the seas are murky and yellow. The local sea salt industry is exemplified by the city of Guerande roughly half hour up the coast above Saint Nazaire.

Here is a place of fairies and dolmens, ancient burial grounds of the people thousands of years before Europe started shaping up.

The dolmen on the picture is the dolmen of Predaire, easily accessible through a coastal trail from La Fontaine aux Bretons, a small village where we stayed at the great Auberge de la Fontaine aux Bretons.

The dolmen of Predaire is a series of limestone rocks arranged in the shape of a chamber above the sea, a beautiful site for all sorts of black and white magic. Nearby are several small creeks where we walked down to look for shells and build sand castles.