Photos

Here is an industrial building people from Nantes know very well : Beghin-Say sugar refinery, on an island of the river Loire close to the centre of Nantes city. You can't miss its silhouette and its colours when you go to the centre of Nantes coming from the south. This refinery was built in 1935, so it is the last sugar cane refinery built in France. Its lovely white and blue colours are most recent, from 1991. Since 2004 the refinery belongs to Tereos group. Sugar comes by boat from Réunion, Antillas, Caribbean or Pacific. Refining process consists in removing impurities from sugar and crystallize it. Then the sugar is conditionned and sold under Blonvilliers, l'Antillaise and A la Perruche brands. The factory produces 600 tons per day. But the refinery is today under production and there is a risk that it could be closed.

Sugar refineries exist in Nantes for a long time. The first one was built in 1653 and in the middle of the 18th century there were 22 in Nantes ! This industry grew up thanks to horrible triangular trade. Ships left Europe to Africa and traded goods for slaves. Slaves were transfered to America and exchanged for sugar, coffee, cacao or tobacco. Finally these products were brought back to Europe and processed, in particular in Nantes. Some cities of France, like Nantes, Bordeaux or La Rochelle, grew mainly thanks to triangular trade. When you walk in some areas of those cities, as Quai de la Fosse or Ile Feydeau at Nantes, you have good reasons to feel embarassed about where these buildings come from ...

This photo was token from the little village of Haute-Ile in Rezé, as the sun was going down on the horizon.