The big story Guérande salt
Appearing several millennia ago, Guérande salt is intimately linked to the history of France. Long reserved for a certain elite, today it's on everyone's table, spicing up everyday cooking as well as festive occasions.
Guérande salt through time
The first traces of the Guérande salt marshes date back to the Iron Age. But it was later, in 945, that the monks of Landévennec Abbey drew up the current architecture of the Guérande salt marshes by studying the movement of the tides, the direction of the wind and the rays of the sun. These are the living elements that have shaped the Guérande marshes and their relief for so many years.
Salt baptized Guérande
It was salt, the treasure of the salt marshes, that directly inspired the name of the town of Guérande.
In Old Breton, its name was Gwerrann or Uuenrann, whose prefix "Uuen" means white, sacred and blessed.
Guérande refers directly to the purity and quality of the salt harvested on its lands, proof that the town's destiny has always been closely linked to salt farming!
The birth of salt From ocean to oeillets
Mulon
Océan Atlantique
Étier
Trappe
Vasière
Cobier
Fare
Aderne
Œillets
1 From ocean to estuary
With a salt concentration of around 25 g/l, the Atlantic Ocean enters the sea sound of Le Croisic, then rises through a system of canals, the "étiers", to the deepest part of the Guérande basin, several kilometers from the ocean.
2 Passage through the mudflat
At high tide and whenever he needs water, the salt grower opens a trap door and fills his vasière, the first evaporation basin in the circuit, with seawater to act as a reserve between tides. As its name suggests, it's also a settling basin, where suspended particles stirred up by the sea settle out.
3 Daily reserve basins
Thanks to a slight, constant gradient, this water then passes into the evaporation basins, the cobier, the fares and the adernes, which serve as daily reserves to feed the last basins where the salt is harvested: the œillets.
4 Salt crystallization
In the oeillet, the water reaches a sufficient concentration for the salt to crystallize (250 to 280 g/l). It's the salt worker's job to judiciously adjust the water levels in the basins to compensate for what has evaporated on a daily basis. Thanks to this vigilance, he can harvest the fruit of his labor, the famous Le Guérandais salt.
Visit the Guérande marshes and discover their inhabitants
Discover a true sanctuary for nature at its simplest, and the flora and fauna that inhabit it.
All the news of the Le Guérandais cooperative
To find out more about the extraordinary heritage of the salt marshes, its events and the strength of the Le Guérandais cooperative, take a look at our dedicated articles!
