Blue Skies o’er
Blackminster
2006-06-13
 
 
We approach the isle by a bridge, newly built in the 1970’s.
First stop, our driver José takes us by the Gois, the old passage under the sea.
Danger, danger...
It’s not high tide, but the road ends here nevertheless.
A traditional group photo.  The ‘balise’ in back will serve if we’re caught in the tide...
The potato fields of Noirmoutier.
Since pre-history, this island has been a strategic point for many wars.
In peace or in war, this place of worship held its place against all tides.
A redundancy, but still, this is an impressive castle.
Inside the church, a ‘rétable’ from the time of Louis XIV - a work of the Contre-Réforme.
West France was for a while protestant, but much work and war weakened the ‘heresy’.
Bringing back parts of St. Philbert to his original church was part of this work.
Donations from the richest families and even from Emperor Napoleon III helped, too.
The old port of Noirmoutier only works at high tide...
The Bois (Wood) de la Chaise was an early favorite of visitors in the 1800’s.
The first leisure visitors came by train and then by boat.
This beach was reserved for the ladies, ‘La Plage des Dames’.
The wood of La Chaise.
The beach from the wood.
A view from the jetty back to the wood.
The painter Auguste Renoir came here to relax and painted some of this coast.
From the wood back to the bus.
Monks made these marshes produce the salt that kept food for the Empire of Christ
Tides have changed.  Let’s go back to the Gois.
The road under the sea is now open.
The balise is now a tower to look across the bay toward the Continent of Europe.
Only experts try this crossing, and at their own peril.
This lady has taken a false step.  Good sand stands, but some of this sand is ‘quick’.
If you know your way, you can park and hunt clams.  If not...
Dr. V and me -- 25 years of marriage, today.  A necklace of pearl to celebrate.
A very fine lunch that starts with”
‘mousse de canard’.
Again, a bright day on the island.
Good food and a pause at midday is a secret for the longevity of the French.
Knowing how to manage the food is another secret.
The French would only eat melon with a knife and fork.
For the main dish: ‘merlu nantais’ with potatoes and garnish of the isle.
An assortment of cheeses is the first course of dessert.
Grande finale: ‘a floating isle’ -- just ask us if it is delicious or not...
After lunch, Justin and I go looking for secrets on the coast.
A WWII blochaus is what we find.  It overlooks the mouth of the Loire River.
This site could make or break one of the most important ports of Europe.
An this fortress looks pretty much impregnable, so much for Normandy...
Next, back to the Continent, kind of.  We’re in the marshes coast-side.
These lands were harsh and wet, but they offered some hope to those who dared try.
Reeds from the marsh made the roof, and almost everything came from land or sea.
Inside, furniture was built for the flood -- all this is under sea level.
No trees in the marsh -- cow patties were a prime fuel.
Doors were low to keep out the tempest, and to provide the famous ‘butt shot’ of Vendée...
A ‘ratelier’ was used in the bakery to keep bread away from the rats.
Baking here was done in the home -- very exceptional in France.
To cross the marshes, a ‘perche’ helped to pole vault over the canals.
Reeds, sticks, straw, and bean plants were used for fuel and sorted by need.
Duck was a prime commodity, so their housing was essential.
This room holds authentic examples of many tools needed for life on the marsh.
Here’s a basket to hold the frogs that makes such a good dinner.
Have we seen three graces before somewhere?
The medieval monks drained these marshes from the sea for one reason...
SALT...
They called it ‘white gold’ and for centuries good work was paid in its measure...
‘Sel’ / ‘Sal’ :  that’s where we get the word ‘salary’ and the expression ‘worth...salt’.
The real value was to preserve food before the days of refrigeration.
Plants that grow on the the salt marsh also have magical properties.
‘Salicorne’ is a precious product.
It grows wild around the salt marsh.
 
After trying a new format, we’re back to the template.   You’ll get fewer words, but we hope the pictures will speak for themselves.
 
Today, we’re off to the north of Vendée through the Breton Marshes and off the Continent to the Isle of Noirmoutier.   The name derives from the costumes of the monks that first came her and an old word for “church”.  We get ‘Westminster’ from the same source, so ‘Noirmoutier’ can be translated along that model.  Those first Christians came here in the 700’s.  Led by the legendary Saint Philbert, they built great riches from the natural resources of this island and from the human energy they captured for the work of their faith.  When Philbert died, his body was given a special place in the church of Noirmoutier.
 
The work of these monks succeeded for a couple of hundred years, despite the increasing menace of the pirates from the north -- the Vikings.  By the ninth century, as the Vikings seemed ready to take over all the lands near the sea, the monks ceded the island and fled to the continent, all the way to far inland Burgundy.  They took the relics of Saint Philbert, all the way inland.  More about that with a picture or two.
 
From the dawn of time, this island was know for the fertility of its soil and the warmth of its climate.  This far north, no land in Europe comes so close to imitating the Mediterranean.
 
This island was also blessed by a miraculous phenomenon.  Twice a day, every day, the sea that separates isle and continent opens up and allows land travelers to come or go, albeit with great danger of death.  More of that in pictures, too.
 
A final note on the marshes that mark this island and the continent near by.  These marshes were from pre-history hostile lands.  Only the monks of early Christendom and the strength of their faith were able to tame them.  They did so with the miracle of salt -- the principal means up till very recently to conserve food for the winter and beyond.  These monks took the bays in these coasts and turned them to fertile basins, first to make salt and then to cultivate grains and foods of many sorts.  In early Christian times, wheat was the best and richest crop, fertilized by the marshes and by the seaweeds that washed upon these shores.  When America was discovered, another plant arrived here, and along with fish and oyster it is the most precious export of Noirmoutier -- the spring potato grown in seaside soil.   It has sold for its weight in gold on some markets....