Rochefort

They rebuilt a warship. Plank by plank, over seventeen years, using the same techniques the 18th-century carpenters used, in the same dry dock on the Charente river. The Hermione — the frigate that carried Lafayette to America — now floats in Rochefort in France, a naval town where Colbert's rational geometry still maps the streets and the Corderie Royale stretches 374 metres along the riverbank.

Rochefort was founded in 1666 by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a planned naval arsenal on the Charente river, its grid-pattern streets and monumental buildings designed to support the construction and outfitting of the French Atlantic fleet. The Corderie Royale, built in 1669, was the longest building in Europe at the time — a 374-metre rope-making factory that produced the cordage for every ship in the French navy. The Hermione reconstruction project, begun in 1997 and completed in 2014, rebuilt Lafayette's 1779 frigate using traditional materials and techniques in the original dry dock — the ship has since sailed to America and is open for tours. Pierre Loti, the naval officer and novelist, was born in Rochefort — his house, preserved as an elaborate orientalist fantasy of Turkish, Japanese, and medieval rooms, is open to visitors. The town sits at the edge of the Marais de Brouage, a former saltmarsh now supporting diverse birdlife.