Question from France

[tattybogle]

Hi everyone
Does anyone have any experience of visiting St Nazaire in France? Is it worth including on our itinerary and are there any aires that you would recommend? TIA

 

[HarryML7]

Yes, head for the port to see the location of “The Greatest Raid of All” HMS Campbeltown’s WW2 raid on the dry dock 28/3/42 to prevent repairs to the Tirpitz.

 

[jongood]

Hi everyone
Does anyone have any experience of visiting St Nazaire in France? Is it worth including on our itinerary and are there any aires that you would recommend? TIA

Submarine pens are worth a visit and you get to go inside a decomissioned French submarine. It was heavily bombed during WW2 and subject to an attack by Marines ramming a ship into the dock to try and prevent the subs getting out.

The Invulnerable Nazi Saint-Nazaire Submarine Base

The Saint-Nazaire submarine base is a large, fortified submarine base constructed by the Germans in the occupied city of Saint-Nazaire on the west coast of France. - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News

www.heritagedaily.com

S4S are showing an aire but mixed reviews, probably better to see it during the day and go on to another, lots around there.

 

[TDub49]

Worth it just to go over the bridge.

 

[Mark and Mindy]

Yes (bump)

A very little info on the area...

In September 2019 we had a trip to visit the Musée des Blindés in Saumur which is one of the world's largest tank museums.

We made our return via St Nazaire. We parked up but not camping in the south side of the river and then because we like bridges crossed the impressive Pont de Saint-Nazaire. To find an overnight park up we travelled up the coast a little and on our 3rd attempt settled on a camping spot at Lerat. It was in a directory and had a barrier we had to pay the usual small fee.

The next day we headed up to Lorient to visit the Keroman Submarine Base which is one of the vast U-Boat pens used by Germany in WW2. The U-Boat pens are huge bomb proof concrete structures and they have been largely filled in and even the tidal basin in front seems to be filled in. The site is now commercial workshops and such. It is possible to walk around the site and it is possible to look into some pens, There is visitor centre and guided tour but it didn't suit my itinerary.

We then travelled further up the coast and overnighted in the town car park at Concarneau jammed into a line of car park bays with all the other motorhomers. We walked down to the old town fortress island in the harbour (tourist trap) and had a meal.

The next day we headed back towards St Malo and the ferry.

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[tattybogle]

Thank you everyone sounds interesting and we shall take a look