Specialities Salt from Guérande

Salt from Guérande (Loire-Atlantique, 44) comes from sea water evaporation in salterns. There is no subsequent refining. 11.000 tons of salt are collected from June to September by local workers. Crystals have various colors depending on the nature of the "oeillet" in which they're collected. Crystals have a humid aspect and are very crumbly because of high hygroscopicity of salt, magnesium content and trace elements.

Sky View of the Guérande swamps. @NRCO - GP

Bricks installations from neolithics aimed at evaporating salt prove that saltworks'exploitation on the Atlantic coast is very old. In fact exploitation places of the Guérande salterns haven't much changed since the 10th century when they were run by the Saint-Sauveur-de-Redon monks, and if current collecting technics are comparable to those of the 14th century, drying now uses hot air or microwaves.

See also: photo galery on air-mer-loisirs.com