Click
Painting for Enlargement
Click
Painting for Enlargement
Lorient,
France ----- Located southeast of Quimper
on the right bank of the Scorff
River, Lorient was established as a port
town during the 17th century to serve the French East India Company and
was later developed as a naval base by Napoleon I. During World War
II,
the town was used as a major German submarine base and was almost
totally destroyed by Allied bombs during 1942-43. The city was rebuilt
after the war and today its main attraction for travelers is the annual
Inter-Celtic Festival held here each August.
Napoleon - http://www.napoleonseries.org/articles/napoleon.cfm
Port in Lorient, France
The wearing of Lorient in 1792 --- Oil-base paint of J-B Hüe (copy)
From
la Manche to l'Atlantique
The first leg of my journey was
to take me from coast to coast from la Manche to l'Atlantique. After
disembarking, I travelled southwest towards Lorient. Avoiding Rennes, I bypassed
Dinan taking the relatively quiet D766 until I picked up the main N24 into
Lorient, the journey of about 175km (110miles) taking about two and a half
hours. (Incidentally, its worth remembering that whilst there is officially only
one short stretch of autoroute - the A84 from south of Avranches to Rennes - in
all of the four departments of Brittany there are now several roads connecting
the major towns built to motorway standards - the N12, N24, N136, N137, N157,
N165 and N166, but all are toll free).
Arriving in Lorient is a bit of a shock.
Anyone expecting a quaint old Breton fishing port will I'm afraid be
disappointed, but the story behind the name - and the disappointment - is a
fascinating one. Anyone familiar with the rather stark and uniform post-World
War Two concrete and brick architecture of Le Havre and most of the towns of
Normandy will recognise the same style when driving through the main shopping
streets of Lorient - and Lorient was destroyed and rebuilt for the same reason.
The Allies were actually responsible for the destruction of 80% of old Lorient
in their ultimately failed attempts to destroy the German U-Boat pens in the
port area of Keroman and in fact the German occupation of the Rade de Lorient
(formed by the estuaries of the Rivers Ter, Scorff and Blavet) remained until
nearly a year after D-Day. Look back a little further, to before 1666 in fact,
and the town didn't even exist and if you wonder about the rather 'un-Breton'
sounding name of Lorient look to the other side of the Rade for an explanation.
The name Lorient is derived simply from
L'Orient - The Orient - and to give a clearer indication of its derivation,
there is currently a campaign to reinstate the apostrophe. Why L'Orient? The
clue just across the River Scorff is Port-Louis, the home until 1664 of La
Compagnie des Indes - the French equivalent (and competitor to) the British East
India Company. After a temporary move to Le Havre when the first company founded
by Richelieu failed - the move was soon revoked due to the constant harassment
of the company's ships by the British - a plot of land was bought on the right
bank of the River Scorff for the construction of a new port for the boats
leaving for l'Orient.