Rochefort

Created from scratch in 1666 on Colbert's orders to set up an arsenal able to rival the European maritime powers, Rochefort has kept the chessboard plan characteristic of classical new towns, organised around Place Colbert and its Baroque fountain. The Corderie Royale, a building more than three hundred metres long where the fleet's ropes were once made, still borders the Charente and now houses a cultural centre devoted to maritime history. The town also owes its literary fame to the travel writer Pierre Loti, whose house-museum, a true cabinet of orientalist curiosities, can be visited a stone's throw from the port, while the Martrou transporter bridge, one of the last surviving in France, spans the river at the town's entrance.

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