Bréhémont, port on the Loire

Bréhémont (pronounced Bray-mont) is a small village on the banks of the Loire West of the Touraine region, at the gates of the Anjou, ranked among the most beautiful villages of France. Watered by the Loire, Indre and the old Cher, its old economic activities were totally linked to water: skippers, Shad and salmon fishing and the cultivation of hemp which strongly influenced architecture and landscape.

Activity on the Loire was important in the 18th and 19th centuries: skippers of Loire landed at the port, amazingly large for such a small municipality, to load bullets of hemp and hemp in bulk, hay, wood from the forest of Chinon, but also to unload construction materials: tufa stone, slates, tiles. From 1670 till the beginning of the 19th century, about 70 sailors were identified in Bréhémont. There were also boat carpenters.

The village was recognized as the capital of hemp in Touraine: "the country of Bréhémont is growing the most hemp and of the best quality". Hemp is cultivated since the Middle Ages; already important at the time of the French Revolution, production increased continuously until 1853, despite the decline of national production since 1841. In 1892, despite financial incentives, only 282 hectares were left, 199 in 1913, 100 in 1942 and 2 in 1966.
The inhabitants used beds the old Cher as “routoirs” (for hemp retting basins). "There are still heaps of stones used to immerse the the"echaillots" or the"wheels"of hemp at the edge of rouissons and two superb routoirs near the bed of the Indre, “la Butte aux Oies” and “Belette."

Fishing was another important activity for many families in the 19th and 20th century. In the 19th century, 30 families live from fishing between the two villages of La Chapelle aux Naux and Rigny-Ussé adjoining Bréhémont. Two forms of fishing are practiced: Large-scale fishing using cabin boats equipped with a square net across part of the Loire to catch migratory fish and salmon and small-scale fishing using pots “foudrets”, outside the main fishing periods. The wives of fishermen would then sell the fish in the hamlets. Each had her sector that she toured by foot, bike or car later. The fish was sold to individuals and restaurants. Shad and salmon were shipped to the restaurants by train from the Langeais station as far as Tours, or even Paris. Before the war, during the main fishing season, fishermen sailed all night from Bréhémont to the Halles of Tours.

The village, one of the most prosperous of the Department, displays a well preserved and varied architectural and ethnographic heritage: houses, aligned on the Loire dyke or immediately below, still demonstrate the wealth of their neo-classical ornamentation.
This past was recently revived: the restored port welcomes fishing boats, “toues” with or without cabin, a barge; There is a public weighbridge and even the remains of public toilets used by the mariners. Hemp ovens have been restored, the two routoirs on the Indre cleaned and the tools for cultivation and transformation of hemp have been reclaimed by the 'the Rouissons of Bréhémont' association that organizes re-enactments.

Today, Bréhémont enjoys a new reputation as a milestone in the Loire à Vélo cycling route.

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