Trentemoult

Trentemoult is an old village of fishermen and sailors located on left bank of the the Loire, integrated into the commune of Rezé, in the south of Nantes, in Loire-Atlantique. Its inhabitants is the Trentemousins .

History

An island in the islands

Trentemoult is located in an old insular unit: islands of Rezé, encircled in north by the Loire and the south by Seil. The filling of this last put an end to their insularity. The islands of Rezé were made up, the upstream towards the downstream, the island of the Knights with the villages of the High-Island and the Basile, the hamlet of Norkiouse and finally of the island of Trentemoult which was separated from the remainder of the islands by a small river: Courtil-Brisset. Trentemoult concentrating the essence of the population, the name of the island was often used to indicate the whole of the islands of Rezé, of the lasting remainder inhabited by the same families of the centuries.

According to the tradition, the village would owe its name with a warlike exploit which took place 1000 years ago. At the time of the seat of Nantes by the Norman at the 9th century, thirty brave men would have fought men of North against. The borough would have drawn its name from it. Épique but perhaps more credible, " Trentemoult" could be also resulting from " thirty moux" i.e. thirty hillocks.

The island of the fishermen

The trentemousins had the characteristic, until the beginning of the XIXe century, of living almost entirely of the practice of fishing. They profited in particular from a privilege of fishing in the estuary of the Loire, granted in 1397 by the Duc of Brittany Jean IV.

The fishermen of Trentemoult embarked in small flat-bottomed boats, called barges, to two for fishing in the Loire and to three for that at sea. For the latter, they did not hesitate to venture until La Rochelle and Lorient. To the autumn, they went in bay of Mesquer for fishing to the Hareng. The years 1756 and 1757 were exceptional and would have brought back a product cumulated of more than 300.000 books to the community, a true fortune.

The island of the captains

At the beginning of the XIXe century, the fishermen of Trentemoult gradually forsake fishing with the profit of the maritime trade: Coastal traffic then Length-course. Trentemoult becomes thus, and this during all the XIXe century, one of the principal hearths of recruitment of officers of trade for the port of Nantes. Among this great number of captains trentemousins, one can quote the names of Julien Chauvelon, captain of the Belem during 13 years, or of Georges Aubin, with which one owes several accounts of maritime voyages.

In parallel, to answer at the request of the captains trentemousins, of the shipyards develops in the islands, in Trentemoult initially, then in Norkiouse for lack of place: the principal ones being the building sites Chauvelon and Lemerle in first half of the XIXe century, Boju, Clergeau and Tillé in second half. With the apogee of the building sites, they are brigs and Trois-mâts which leave the holds trentemousines.

Habitat

The traditional houses of the fishermen, adapted to believed of the Loire, were generally built on three levels. The first, easily flooded, was occupied by the storeroom, the room being on the second level. The last level was occupied by an attic which could sometimes communicate with the joint attics, thus making it possible to the neighbors to meet without needing to use boats. The staircases were in theory external to reach directly the room during the floods. The latter were however sometimes doubled by an interior staircase. The construction of the quays (Surcouf as from 1850, Marcel Boissard between 1860 and 1888) reduced the risks of overflow of the river. The last great risings memorable are those of 1910 and 1935.

In second half of the XIXe century, captains, whose Cape-Horner S, feeling with narrow in the houses of fishermen, were made build around the old village of the middle-class houses, provided with pleasure gardens characterized by the presence of brought back exotic plants their distances voyages.

Nowadays, the district of the fishermen to the characteristic to have houses coloured with the original and personalized frontages. Become a district " branché" of Nantes, many artists and " sores " there are established.

Cinema

There the scenario writer Jean-Wolf Hubert came to turn the white Queen with Catherine Deneuve in 1991. There Claude Chabrol also came to turn the Young lady of honor in 2005.

Trentemoult still inspires the young scenario writers, with this short-measuring: " Trentemoult"

River shuttles

In 1887, a Steamer baptized Roquio and coming from Nantes accosts for the first time at the quay of Trentemoult. It is the beginning of an adventure which will last until in 1970.

Since 2005, two Navibus (the Trentemoult and the Chantenay ) again ensure the connection with the harbor station of the center of Nantes, pointing out the time when the Roquio was the only mode of crossing of the the Loire.

Gallery

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