Le rocher du Chail entre les maisons/ Chail between the houses

Nitrières Road, the mines and the Chail* along the ancient cliffs, pierced by subterranean tunnels that have been worked from time immemorial. The chalky limestone hardened on contact with seawater and was preferred over all others for the maritime fortifications along the saintongeais and for the forward defences of the arsenal at Rochefort. In the 17th century it was exported all over Western and Northern Europe; to Bordeaux, Bayonne, London, Anvers, Saint Baron de Gaud, Sainte-Gudule, Brussels and others. The miners lived like semi-cave dwellers in houses built in the cliff face. After 1914, the mines were used to grow mushrooms, but were then closed in 1972 by the French Mine Department.

(Original French text by Robert Orgé)

*Chail - literally a small black stone that actually starts life on the riverbed. It gradually becomes covered in limestone, making it white, and with the movement of the river, seasons and time, is left high and dry. If you were to cut one in half, you would be able to see the black centre, ie the original stone!