Making waves in Lorient Its name conjures up visions of ships setting sail for the Orient, encapsulating the history of this vibrant, enterprising Breton port, able to weather any storm, reinventing itself again and again. It’s no use looking for bartizans, parapet walks or Romanesque Historical undercurrents Unlike its neighbors Quimper and churches—there never were any. Forget small cobbled streets, Vannes, which were built up over the centuries, accumulating courtyards smelling of kelp and quaint old shops making tra- historic sites and monuments, Lorient is not a museum city. It ditional coiffes bigoudènes (tall lace bonnets)—they may have was born through the stroke of a pen on parchment, on August been here once, but they’re gone now. In 1943, eight air raids 31, 1666, when Louis XIV ordered a series of shipyards to be reduced the entire city to rubble. Lorient was razed, and it’s built here, ex-nihilo, at the confluence of two rivers. Until then, been rising from the ashes ever since. Norbert Métairie, the ships had emerged from the dry docks at Le Havre, but the war city’s mayor for 20 years, sums up that tragedy in a stirring with European states had put pressure on the city. Lorient, phrase: “Lorient isn’t a city with a contemplative heritage, which was farther from the English coast and had a deep harbor, but a city with a dynamic heritage.” And it’s true. Everything took over. Construction began and workers arrived in droves. here is about movement. The ocean and the tides; the wind Every morning, they converged on a yard where the merchant constantly sweeping the sky; the ships’ propellers churning vessel Soleil- d’Orient was being built; it was called L’Orient, for the water as they power over to the island of Groix; and the short, and the name stuck. A century passed. The mission of the multihull yachts flying across the waves. Even the city itself, French East India Company, which established its headquarters with its neighborhoods coming back to life, restaurants open- here when the shipyards opened, was clear: be a port, hence, ing, start-ups multiplying and new districts buzzing with music build and construct, sail the seas, open up to the world, and and exhibitions. This is a city that has a natural lust for life andbring in men and women, spices and goods from all over, even an ability to face up to new challenges. There’s not a stone, a pacotilles, contraband. The Company brought the city fame and dock or a street that wasn’t created in response to an ordeal. fortune, and went bust, too, several times. Today, its splendid Indienne du XVIII siècle, l’un des trésors exposés au musée de la Compagnie des Indes.e 18th-century indienne print, one of the treasures in the Musée de la Compagnie des Indes. 123