Correspondances carte blanche collections are displayed in the austere fortress of Port-Louis, nology-packed competition yachts idle there. Trimarans make built on the other side of the harbor to plans by a pupil of Vau-headlines. And the Cité de la Voile Éric-Tabarly, designed by ban. Because everything’s always on the move in Lorient, there’s the architect Jacques Ferrier, is an institution. Here, visitors can talk of these treasures being moved to the city center one day. get a real feel for the ocean-faring world and test their ability to rig a boat or dodge a container ship. It’s a mixture of thrills and A vessel of change Over the years,as the population grew, spills, with exciting and moving accounts of capsized boats Lorient became a place of merrymaking, where people had fun during the epic Fastnet Races and of other nautical competitions. as they waited to board or to unload a ship. There were cafés, Naturally, the Lorientais have a passion for fishing, and there- theaters and casinos. Street lighting was installed. Lorient fore for fish, with langoustine the local specialty, along with all was both carefree and business-minded. Two centuries passed, sorts of other seafood. You’ll find it everywhere—on the menu and then disaster struck. The occupying Germans decided to of the numerous starred gourmet restaurants and at the Halles build a gigantic base for its “gray wolves,” the formidable de Merville, a cheerful building that resembles a flying saucer or, U-boats. The Allies made tenacious attempts to destroy more aptly, a buckwheat crêpe. Fish also appears in the crest of the concrete bunker housing the submarine pens, but failed. the local soccer club, the Football Club de Lorient, founded Today, this huge mass dominates a whole area of town. Three in 1926: orange and black with a hake, merlu. That’s the players’ vast bunkers, K1, 2 and 3, block off the horizon. Touring nickname, too: les Merlus; it’s true that, even anchored to the them is a must, though, as is visiting La Flore, the submarine pitch by their cleats, they seem to wriggle like fish in the water. whose svelte silhouette contrasts sharply with that of the base It has to be said that when it pours down raining, as it often and its cyclopean facade that is vaguely evocative of the Great does, the Moustoir stadium starts to look like an aquarium. Wall of China or the ice wall in Game of Thrones. Repulsive but fascinating, this base is today Lorient’s primary Architectural adventure Even Lorient’s buildings make you asset. After the French navy abandoned it in 1997, the site think of a floating armada of ships. While Le Havre was entirely rapidly declined. But now it is metamorphosing into a business rebuilt after World War II by a single architect, Auguste Perret, and entertainment district. Renamed simply La Base, it is home and Saint-Malo was restored to its ogagory brick by brick, to restaurants, crêperies and a whole generation of on-trend Lorient opted for a master plan, drawn up by Georges Tourry companies. A concert hall is set to open in one of the submarine and built by some 50 architects. They were given free rein to pens. The city is thinking big. How could it do otherwise? realize their ideas, and from that creative hotbed emerged Everything is expansive here—the buildings, the atmosphere, the a profusion of urban building types, including a curving horizon, people’s ideas. And a taste for competition seems to be edifice called La Banane; another one nicknamed Os à Moelle part and parcel of the spirit of the place. Every Lorientais loves(“Marrowbone”) because of its multiple elevators; and a group the ocean. The young entrepreneurs at the helm of 727 Sailbags of buildings on piles known as Les Échasses (“The Stilts”). These are now producing lines of bags made from recycled sails of whimsical creations rub shoulders with neoclassical and regionalist racing yachts. The Groix & Nature canning brand nearby markets structures. As a result, the city is a bit of an oddity. Its center has been rebuilt on a human scale. The streets are narrow and look as if they could be centuries old. Everything here is movement: Yet the architecture lining them dates from the 1950s, like the rest of the city. At the time, people the ocean and the tide, the called it la ville blanche. For those who love this style—definitely one that’s back in fashion—and constant wind, ships’ propellorsfor fans of Royan, Le Corbusier, Lurçat and other modernist sites and designers, visiting churning the water, yachts Lorient is a treat. Jean-Baptiste Hourlier’s church of Notre-Dame-de-Victoire is worth a visit alone, for its dome and extraordinary concrete design, flying across the waves. as is the rectangular city hall by the same archi-tect, with its de Chirico-like columns. Henri Gaudin’s theater next to it knits together the elements of the urban environment through its produce from the island of Groix, including its flagship product,undulating roofs and facades. Elsewhere, by municipal decree, an eye-popping orangey-red lobster oil. Banks and law firms buildings have donned splashes of color. As a result, in 2006 have started to move in to support these enterprises. Everywhere Lorient was awarded the official “Ville d’Art et d’Histoire” you look, people are launching, innovating, taking the plunge. label—no mean feat for this place where the winds of the past are swept away by those from the sea. But the future is also Plain sailing Single-handed ocean crossings, audacious exploits shaped by the events that make a splash here every year at the and the roaring waves are part of everyday life here, not only same date, each with a strong identity of its own: the Festival for yachting fanatics but also for their families, friends and Interceltique (August 2 to 11, 2019), for example, with its acquaintances. In the offices that have opened at La Base and in 750,000 yearly visitors; and the Festival des IndisciplinéEs (in its extension around Avenue de la Perrière, there are few people November), whose aim, as its name suggests, is to rock the boat. who don’t have a cousin or husband or half-sister involved in There’s no denying it: caught between the Port-Louis fortress the Route du Rhum, the Vendée Globe or some other yachting race. and the bunkers at La Base, Lorient loves to make waves. It’ll Lorient is known worldwide for its fleet of racing boats. Tech- buffet you and shake you up. It’s an exhilarating experience. 124