La Rochelle

I've been going through the very tedious project of converting my grandparent's old 35mm slides into digital format. Hundreds and hundreds of them; I've scanned over 775 and I'm only about halfway through. It's absolutely a labor of love full of reward as I uncover almost-lost gems of my grandparents living in London post-war (my grandpa was an officer in the US Navy) and traveling all over Western Europe.

I came across these adorable photos of an officer's trip my grandpa took to La Rochelle in March 1959 and wanted to share them here. Apparently, La Rochelle is France's 3rd most visited city. I think that's something to boast about and I'm sure to make a stop there myself. La Rochelle has birthed a number of famous folks: Guy Laroche (famous fashion atelier), William-Adolphe Bouguereau (famous painter, including a few nudes) and Melissa Lauren (famous porn star, definitely nude) to name just a few.

Copyright © 2008 A Southern Belle Goes to Paris, y'all.

Seems like a nice place, doesn't it? Located on the Western Coast on the Bay of Biscay, the TGV will get you there in just 3 short hours from Paris. And you can settle in to enjoy the charming old town history and great seafood. Not to mention the 2400 hours of sunshine they have every year (ironically not captured in any of these photos.) I've provided my grandpa's captions for each image. Enjoy...

A local character.

Rooftops in La Rochelle.

A local lobsterman.

A street in La Rochelle.

Le Champlain Hotel, La Rochelle.