Back on the Loire

One of my favorite people just started a blog.  I was reading and enjoying what she had to say, and, at the same time, I started thinking maybe it’s time to return to my own.  So, after much too much time, here I am again.

Last month, in September, I spent ten days back along the Loire.  I was on the south side of the estuary, in the portion between the old port city of Nantes and the Atlantic ocean.  Rather than riding my bike, I planned to walk this time.  I’d carry my clothes and a few odds and ends in a backpack, walking between B&Bs.  Each would be about 7 to 10 miles apart.  A friend periodically urges me to “get off your bike and see the country on foot.”  So I did.  

Recently renovated control house at the Canal de Buzay with
diagram displaying hydraulic regulation

What drew me to the estuary was the hydrology.  Without human engineering, the last 60 or so kilometers of the river, would be soggy marshlands, periodically soaked by high tides and spring floods.  Over many years — especially since the beginning of the 18th century — local landowners have joined together to construct what has ultimately become a dense networks of drainage ditches, canals, water gates and pumps, all together creating extensive pasture lands, mostly used now for cattle raising.

I didn’t expect to see all of the network on my walk.  But I expected to see some of it and to at least get a feel for this particular section of the Loire.  I did, but not at all in the way I’d expected.  To be continued.