Museum Day in Lorient

Well, today was a focus on Lorient, just to the South of Brest and, historically, the second most important port city in France, However, unlike Brest, the entire port was the creation of Louis XIV in the attempt to modernize France’s navy back in the 17th century. We visited Le Base do Sous Marine in Lorient which houses three museums. The Maritime Museum is small but delivers a concise history of Lorient from the time of its creation through WW2 to the present. The museum in housed in a Louis XIV fort that has never been taken; in WW2 it only surrendered in May, 1945. The second museum deals with the French East India Company, founded by Louis XIV’s brilliant finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. However, catch-up is a hard game when competing against the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602) and the English East India Company (established in 1600). Long story short, Britain prevailed. The third museum featured the Festung Lorient, the German U-Boat yards in Lorient. Great tour of the history of the base and its construction. Brief naps back at our place and then onto dinner at a simple but nice restaurant in Quimper.Read more