Every design for Saint-Nazaire

At the Base Sous-Marine, the vast concrete pens built for the Kriegsmarine still face the harbour, and it is hard to stand beside them without thinking of the British raid of 1942 and the bombing that made Saint-Nazaire one of the most damaged towns in France. It was among the last places in Europe to be freed from German occupation. Its story starts much earlier, though: archaeologists believe it stands on Corbilo, a Gaulish city of the Namnetes, and the Dolmen des Trois Pierres in the centre recalls a Neolithic past.

What lingers is the feeling of a port that refuses to be only one thing. For centuries it was a small village on the right bank of the Loire estuary, part of traditional Brittany; then railways and the seaport turned it into a large town, and the Chantiers de l'Atlantique began launching liners such as SS Normandie, SS France and Queen Mary 2. The Sous-Marin Espadon and the Écomusée keep that maritime memory within reach.

Follow the coast west and the estuary ends at the Pointe de Chémoulin, where the Loire finally becomes the Atlantic.