From T to P - Turballe to Pornichet!

After 5 days in `Turballe is was time to move on. We decided it would be Pornichet. A complete contrast from the working fishing port to an up market seaside one.

Pornichet is a coastal town of the Côte d'Amour, located tens of kilometers west of Saint-Nazaire, It is part of the area called Loire-Atlantique.

The name of Pornichet comes from Port Niché, which could be translated by Port in a niche. The town is named following its principal characteristic of a port located in an alcove along a salt-work channel, which was connecting the salt-works (current racetrack) and the bay.

Pornichet has 10,696 inhabitants . Its area is 13 km2. In over 30 years, the town has gained about     5,000 inhabitants. The summer population is estimated at about 55,000 people . As with many tourist resorts some 55% of the homes are second homes.

Note bottom left is where we turned East after gybing

Before we left La Turballe, we filled up with fuel. She took 117 litres so just as well. We had gentle winds and sunshine for our  4 hour trip. Winds were F3 and conveniently went from WNW to WSW as we gybed to turn east after passing the headland. Gybing for non sailors, is when you turn the boat and the wind goes around the back of the boat, instead of the front.

We called the Marina on VHF as we came in and they put us on the end of C Pontoon so we had a nice spot where we could observe the comings and goings of the marina.

In  this short 3 minute video you will get a flavour of our sail, the marina and Pornichet town.

Whilst at Pornichet, we caught the train back to Arzal to pick up the car. The nearest station was our lovely winter residence Redon. There were no buses so we went to the tourist office who organised a taxi. Nice guy, but he took the longest route and so it cost us an arm and leg, well €65 to be precise.

Our view in the evening

My Apple Pie

The Beach

Still we had our car and it enabled us to visit St, Nazaire and Pornic. The later was on our schedule, but having driven here we decided it was not worth the effort. The marina is way out from the town and not particularly attractive. So it helped us decide to go straight to the Ile de Noirmoutier, when we left Pornichet