22 November 2018

La Rochelle : La Tour de l'Horloge

We were in La Rochelle on Monday, October 22, a month ago today. We'd been trying to get to La Rochelle for 10 years, and we finally made it. When we were staying in a gîte on the nearby Île d'Oléron in 2008, all the ports and bridges were closed by striking marins-pêcheurs (commercial fishermen). Our excursions were limited to seeing places on the island.


Above is the Tour de l'Horloge in La Rochelle. It's a Gothic-era tower but the top section was added on in the 18th century. The tower is actually an old city gate called La Port de la Grosse Horloge that leads into the old town from the port.



Originally, La Rochelle was a fortified city, but it outgrew the old walls a long time ago. The city used to have a tramway, with streetcars passing through the old gate. The man whose statue you see in the first photo is Guy-Victor Duperré, a La Rochelle native who was a naval officer and French admiral in the first half of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic era.

5 comments:

  1. Glad you finally made it to La Rochelle, it was worth the wait.

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  2. What a sky! Perfect backdrop for this stone, that I so associate with old structures in France.
    Happy Thanksgiving, guys!

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  3. Creative architecture with the 18th century top on top of the city gates. Attractive combination though. Nice patinated bronze of Monsieur Guy-Victor Duperré. Happy turkey day to all!

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  4. I was in LaRochelle for a week several years ago and loved it. Took many photos. On the train to Paris my suitcase was stolen. For the only time in my travels I had put my computer and camera in it. So I have no pictures of my time in LaRochelle. I hope you'll post many more so I can save them. These are beautiful.

    Happy Thanksgiving from New Bern,
    Libbie

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    1. That's terrible, Libbie. You must have been very upset. I would have been.

      I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. We did — a very quiet day. It rained until mid-afternoon, but then I was able to take a dry walk with the dog.

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