The Working Loire

Before it was a tourist destination, the Loire was one of France's busiest commercial highways. Until the coming of the railway, flat-bottomed boats called chalands carried everything from salt and wine to coal and timber. The mariniers (river sailors) who worked these boats were a breed apart, with their own customs, songs, and superstitions.

This tradition hasn't entirely disappeared. In Montjean-sur-Loire, the last commercial sand dredgers worked until the 1990s. Today, their descendants like Jean-Pierre Rabouin keep the memory alive: "My grandfather could read this river like a book. Every ripple, every eddy told him something. He knew where the sandbanks would form before they appeared. This knowledge, it wasn't written down anywhere. It lived in the body, in the hands."

The river also supported industries that seem almost magical today. The Loire's sand, with its particular mineral composition, was essential for making the finest French glass and crystal. Silk workers in Tours used the river's soft water to create fabrics that adorned European courts. These industries drew workers from across Europe and beyond—Italian silk workers, Bohemian glassmakers, Jewish merchants who connected Loire products to international markets.