Since 2004, the medieval town of Guérande has been a member of a national network of 120 towns, the Villes et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire (Towns and Regions of Art and History). The fortified wall of Guérande is one of the best preserved and complete in France. Its circumference stretches 1434 meters.

Sel de Guérande” and “Fleur de Sel de Guérande” have been specially protected by the European PGI (protected geographical indication) label since 2012, which guarantees the origin and quality of salts from Guérande. Accordingly, the salt farmers of the “Les Salines de Guérande” co-operative produce unwashed, additive-free, regional sea salt by hand and under strict controls. The salt of Guérande used to be traded throughout Brittany, tax free until Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte decided to tax it resulting in the beginning of a decline of salt activity. the Namnetes, further South, whose frontier was the Loire river. As a seaboard people, their fortunes increased as they sided with Rome. French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1km 2 (0.386sqmi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. that which forms on the surface of a liquid” is the definition given in most dictionaries, as opposed to that which falls within the liquid or to the bottom.A cooking salt can be dissolved for cooking food, vegetables, fish, pasta or rice; for this we use coarse salt or grey sea salt. To obtain a heterogeneous salting in small drops of water or grains which melt on your tongue, this salt must readily melt, which is the case with TRADYSEL coarse salt. The main towns around Guérande are Saint-Nazaire and Nantes to the East (19km (11.81mi) and 80km (49.71mi) away), and Vannes (70km (43.50mi) to the North). The salterns of Guérande are a swamp of salt water about 1 700 hectares in size. The current saltmarshes began before the 9th century and lasted for several centuries. Around the year 1500, the marshes reached 80% of the current surface. The latest were built around 1800. In the middle of the 19th century, a gradual decline started for different reasons: competition from a salt mine, lower consumption of salt as a product of conservation and improvement of transport by land.

According to the classification established by the INSEE in 1999, Guérande is now classified as an urban district, 1 out of 9 forming the urban area of Saint-Nazaire. In the salt marshes, the salt’s composition varies with the brine’s composition. The mother waters, in the dead end where the salt crystallises, change over the season, as the concentration of different cations increases up to saturation. At the end of good seasons, magnesium can be crystallised for example. History is an eternal cycle. In Guérande (Loire-Atlantique), salt producers are long-accustomed to fighting to defend their craftsmanship. After thwarting a bypass project in the early 1970s that threatened many of the salt marshes, more than 200 salt workers joined together in 1988 to form a co-operative aiming to make Guérande salt the leading salt in France. Obtaining an "organic" label for Atlantic sea salt (Guérande peninsula, the islands of Noirmoutier and Ré) is in their sights, but competition in Europe is fierce and the ongoing lobbying is intensifying. Guérande salt also contains extreme halophile (salt-loving) micro-organisms (link to glossary), which contribute to its colour and aroma. The dunaliela salina is a micro algae which gives the characteristic pink colour to the mother waters, feeds artemias, which themselves give the rose colour to salmon and flamingos. The salt is obtained by sun and wind evaporation and it is neither filtered nor cleaned thus it is free of pollutants from mechanical and chemical processes. The sea salt hasn't even been dried. Therefore, it is still naturally moist .

A closer look at cooking salt

The pond of Mès, a smaller area, to Mesquer. It is the pond salicole most well known in northern Europe. The crystals obtained are completely different: small inversed pyramids, crumbly and transient for flower of salt, and clumps of harder cubes, depending on the time they spend in the water, for coarse salt.

There are many traces of medieval times in the narrow streets of Guérande, like the ramparts still present in their entirety. Classified as Historical Monuments, they allow to appreciate the centuries of history which succeeded in the city. Thus, the Porte de Saillé dates from the 12th century, while the Porte Vannetaise reveals a typical architecture of the second half of the 13th century. As you walk through these ancient defenses, do not miss the Saint-Jean tower, from the 15th century, or the splendor of the Saint-Michel gate. Monumental, the latter was built at the beginning of the XVIIth century and unveils the coat of arms of the city of Guérande, two helmeted lions. Long of more than 1400 meters, the ramparts are the occasion of a beautiful walk in the oldest parts of the places. Salt forms part of many religious ceremonies and is a sign of hospitality when it is placed on the table.Ref 5th volume: Y Historia genealógica y heráldica de la monarquía española1 de D. Francisco Fernandez de Béthencourt, 1904 dedicated to the title of Medina Celi Le Guérandais Guérande Salt is produced in Brittany by the ocean, sun and wind and is hand-harvested by salt workers, using skills and a method that are over a thousand years old. The Balzac novel Béatrix is set in Guérande, concerning Calyste, son of the Baron de Guenic, and his relations with characters based on George Sand, Franz Liszt, and Marie d'Agoult.

This small village between Guerande and La Turballe has many typical houses of salt workers. There are many monuments of interest such as the Sainte-Catherine church (built during the 15th century), Requer's Cross ( listed building in 1944) as well as parts of an old Roman wall. In 1840, following the creation of the National Historical Monuments commission, the church's true value was realised and it was listed. The works undertaken by the architect Bourgerel were overly ambitious and caused the collapse of the west front in 1876. It was Eugène Boismen who was charged with reconstructing it in the original style. Charming medieval city, Guérande takes place in the heart of the Pays de la Loire, in the department of Loire-Atlantique. Surrounded by salt marshes that have made its reputation, the town is located about fifteen kilometers from Saint-Nazaire, not far from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Guerande Fleur de Sel (Flower of the Salt) - this rare white French salt is the finest grade of guerande salt and it is rich in minerals.Fleur de sel is naturally white and isn't crushed or washed so keeping its incomparable flavour. Not to be confused with thegrey Gros Sel Guerandewhich we also sell.

100% natural !

The proposed certification of organic salt, under discussion in Brussels, allows too wide a range of industrial production techniques according to salt workers and salt producers.