La Rochelle

Formerly a fishing village, then a trading port for salt and wine. Protestant city, envied for its prosperity by Richelieu and Louis XIII, it is the object of a siege with starvation. Its mayor, Jean Guiton appealed in vain to the English, the city surrendered in 1628 having lost 4 / 5th of its population. In the 18th century, the city launched into the slave trade and became a major slave port. This economic prosperity will stop in the 19th century. The old port, emblem of the city, is framed by the towers of the Lantern and the Chaîne. Today the city hosts a fishing port with an ultra-modern auction "La Pallice" and a marina, the largest in Europe "Les Minimes". La Rochelle is also known for its Francofolies festival, created by Jean-Louis Foulquier, who is now deceased, and which has become a benchmark for French-speaking songs, attracting around a hundred artists, as many concerts and thousands of festival-goers every summer. . Other important events: the Grand Pavois, the benchmark nautical show that welcomes all sailing enthusiasts or the La Rochelle International Film Festival. La Rochelle is a pleasant, very sunny city where you can cycle around. It is, moreover, one of the first cities to have created bicycle paths and self-service two-wheel rentals. Special feature: the sea bus allows you to go from one bank to the other and go from the old port to the Port des Minimes, a few kilometers away. It is pleasant to stroll through the old town, to stroll under the arcades, to admire the elegant 18th / 19th century mansions and mansions, to visit the old market square. Several museums enhance a visit to La Rochelle: the Maritime Museum, the New World Museum, the Fine Arts Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Orbigny-Bernon Museum, as well as the Automata Museum, and that of reduced models.
The La Rochelle aquarium allows visitors to visit the depths of the sea on our coasts but also on other continents, with more than 12,000 varieties of fish and marine animals.