St. Nazaire, France

At the time of writing this update, the crew of Pride II have been in St. Nazaire for three and a half weeks. In that period, the focus has turned from recovery to rebuilding. Management is still entertaining bids for spar and mast production and the crew have settled in for the long haul, with a routine of five days on and two days off, a luxury in the world of tall ship sailing. A few people have hung around the boat on weekends, while others have gone to nearby Nantes and not-so-near Paris, for a little French sightseeing. I have discovered that St. Nazaire has a lot more to offer than seen at first glance, and have enjoyed walking along the beaches, through the shopping district and botanical gardens. Bhodi and I even stopped in to have a beer and listen to the music at a Celtic Festival last weekend, held in the old German submarine base. And now, here is our impression of St. Nazaire.
~~Erin

Below are some Photos of some of the sights here in St. Nazaire

Pride of Baltimore II at her St. Nazaire Yard in St. Nazaire, FR.

Taken from atop an old German Submarine Base, one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Another aerial shot of Pride, lying along side...

In full "Yard Mode".

One of the Locks we have to cross to get anywhere in St. Naz from the boat.

The big concrete building is part of the old Sub Base, inside is a relic U-Boat.

The Local Fishing fleet.

Here's some of the local places near the boat.

The Pizzaria on the far left is really nice.

Le Skipper is the place where we had our nice "Crew dinner out", right after we got here.

Very nice place... Try the Crém Brulè.

The language barrier isn't too daunting

when it comes to a thirsty sailor looking for a sailor bar.

"La Passerelle" is a great place just a walk from the boat...

With Good Beer, Darts, and a friendly bartender.

I really like checking out some of the cars that we see over here.

Many of the cars over here, would never do in the states.

Perhaps they use too little fuel.

Here's one of the standard street scenes in St. Naz.

All of the buildings in the city have been built since WWII, because we bombed all the old ones when the Germans were here.

We left England trying to get to Santander, Spain.

We wound up here in St. Nazaire, FR

How were we to know that the road to Santander was here all along.

You Can't see it here, but this house has a lovely view of the ocean.

Across the street is a really nice boardwalk

where we found our Captain on a nice Sunday afternoon.

Finally. Erin hates posing for photos for me,

so I usually have to catch her candidly.