Our boat trip on the Loire starts in the village of Les Carroueils.
In the morning, the fisherman Claude Janin welcomes us at his mooring. Besides fishing, he offers boat tours for tourists on the Loire during the summer. During the winter, he earns his living with the production of his own fish pies.
He provided us information about the landscape, the river and the culture of this area and about fishing.
Although the Loire river is only up to 4 m deep, dangerous floods can occur. The worst were in 1910 and 1936. Dams were built in endangered places but still today the Loire is Europe’s longest meandering river with a length of 1000 km.
Also in the Delta, the tides play a significant role. In Nantes the tidal difference is usually 4-6 m. You can recognize it in the port of La Pierre Percée with its oversized bollards where the pontoons can float. A nymph welcomes us at the harbor entrance.
The banks of the river, as well as the islands offer a lot of nesting opportunities to the birds.
Most fish were imported from the Danube (Germany would have imposed a immigation stop). White fish, eel, roach, brace, pike, carps and grey mullet can be found next to catfish and pike-perch. The catfishes can get 2 – 3 m long with a weight of 150 kg.
A lot of bridges were destroyed in the 2nd World War, however, single pillars are still in the original state. Claude draws our attention to the Restaurant Clemence in La Chebuette, we should get to know more detail later. It was the birthplace of the white butter (Beurre blanc).
Shortly after Mauves sur Loire, we passed the pumping station for the drinking water of Nantes on the right bank.
Afterwards Claude draws our attention to two striking trees on the hill that were planted by Jules Verne at a visit of his sister.
Claude provided us with delicious appetizers with his homemade fishterrine matched with aperitif and of course the famous Muscadet sur Lie. His fish terrine are even sold in Berlin.
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More InformationAt the end of the trip he gave us a small sample of his two boat engines with 230HP. This was a rather hard matter.
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Disclaimer: The visit of Clisson was on invitation of Le Voyage à Nantes and Clisson Tourist Office. Many thanks for it! All impressions and opinions are our own ones.
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