Guerande

Guerande keeps its full ring of medieval walls, about one and a half kilometres with ten towers and four gates, one of the few in France that was never breached for road building. Below the town spread the salt marshes, a grid of shallow clay pans where paludiers still harvest by hand using long wooden rakes, taking coarse grey salt from the pan floor and the fine fleur de sel that forms as a crust on the surface in dry weather. The method has changed little since the ninth century. Salt is sold everywhere in the town, and guided walks into the marshes explain the water circuit that concentrates the brine.

What you actually see

• The complete walls - an unbroken medieval ring with four gates.
• The salt pans - a clay grid of shallow basins below the town.
• The paludiers at work - hand harvesting with long wooden rakes in summer.
• Fleur de sel - the fine crust skimmed from the surface on dry days.

When to go

Harvest runs roughly June to September and is the time to see the marshes worked; it stops entirely in rain. The town is busiest in August. Marsh walks need booking.

Honest expectations

The salt marshes are working ground, not a park, and paths through them are narrow and exposed with no shade. Harvesting stops in wet weather. The town centre is heavily given to salt and souvenir shops.

Nearby

La Baule lies south; Le Croisic is west.