Taxi Bordeaux → Rochefort

Rochefort is a town whose history is inseparable from the sea and the French Royal Navy. Founded in 1666 by Colbert as the Sun King's maritime arsenal, Rochefort was designed as a rational new town with a grid plan and military installations among the kingdom's most important. The Corderie Royale, a monumental 374-metre-long building constructed in 1666 on the banks of the Charente, is the symbol of this ambition: all the ropes for the Royal Navy's ships were manufactured here. Restored after a fire in 1944, it now houses a fascinating interpretation centre. The Hermione, an exact replica of the frigate that carried La Fayette to America in 1780 to support the American insurgents, is Rochefort's most spectacular heritage project: built between 1997 and 2014 in the arsenal's dry dock (using 18th-century techniques), she crossed the Atlantic in 2015 for a triumphal voyage to the United States. She can be visited at her berth in the former arsenal. The Maritime Museum, the Maison Pierre Loti (the travel writer born in Rochefort in 1850, whose house is an extraordinary cabinet of oriental curiosities — under restoration), the Napoleonic thermal baths and the Martrou transporter bridge (one of the last in the world) complete an exceptional heritage. Rochefort is also the gateway to the Charente islands: Fort Boyard (visible from the coast), the Île d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron are accessible from the port.