Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef (; ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.INSEE commune file
/ref> Its inhabitants, known as Michelois, numbered 5,173 at the 2018 census. The commune of Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef includes the seaside resort of Tharon-Plage and is also known as the home of the Biscuiterie Saint-Michel, which produces the "galette Saint-Michel" among many other products. Though the original factory lies in the territory of the town, the headquarters have been delocalized in Contres, France

Geography

The commune is part of historical

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, in the traditional country of the pays de Retz. Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef is located on the Côte de Jade, 17 km south of

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Oc ...

and 50 km west of

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, at the western end of the pays de Retz. It lies 8 km north of

Pornic Pornic (; ''Pornizh'' in Breton, ''Port-Nitz'' in Gallo language, Gallo) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France. In 1973 the commune of Pornic absorbed the neighbouring munici ...

, the main city of the community of communes (

Pornic Agglo Pays de Retz Pornic Agglo Pays de Retz is a Agglomeration communities in France, French agglomeration community, created on 1 January 2017 and located in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department and the Pays de la Loire Regions of France, region. ...

) to which the town belongs. Three coastal rivers flows within the communal territory: the ''Calais'', the ''Berno'' and the ''Tharon''. The last one gave its name to the seaside resort of Tharon-Plage.

Etymology

The locality's name is attested as ''Chemicherium'' in the 12th century, and ''Sancti Michaelis de Chevecier'' in 1287. The name Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef, whose etymology is debated, is a deformation of the old form ''Saint-Michel-de-Chevesché'', from the

Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, and continuing into the 7th century in ...

''Terra de Chevesché'', the former name of nearby Pointe Saint-Gildas. The term ''Chevesché'' is a deformation of ''chevecier-chef'', which in ecclesiastical language used to designate the person who watched over the bedside of a church and, by extension, had custody of the treasury. This religious dignitary, who collected the revenues of an abbey (in this case, that of Pornic), lived in a

chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...

(in french, ''chefferie'', hence the chef in the name). As far as the archangel Saint Michel is concerned, we need only recall that places named Saint-Michel are very common in France, and that they derive from places previously dedicated to a Celtic divinity, Lug, the eponymous deity of

Lugdunum Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, ; modern Lyon, France) was an important Colonia (Roman), Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon, France, Lyon. The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but cont ...

(present-day

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

), assimilated by the Romans to Mercury. The most remarkable case of this filiation is Saint-Michel-Mont-Mercure in

Vendée Vendée () is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.Breton form proposed by the public office for the Breton language is ''Sant-Mikael-Keveger''.

History

Prehistory

Occupation of the territory is attested to in the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, as evidenced by the discovery of the Gâtineaux promontory site and, a little further south, the Souchais menhir. Several other megalithic sites (

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s and menhirs) existed in the commune, but were destroyed at the end of the 19th century.

Antiquity

Unchecked sources report that Saint-Michel was a

leprosarium A leper colony, also known by #Names, many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. ''Mycobacterium leprae, M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believ ...

in the 4th century.

Middle Ages

Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef was part of the châtellenie, barony, then duchy-pairie of Retz. Around 1104, Garsire de Retz donated the church to the Saint-Serge Abbey in

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

Contemporary period

During the de-Christianization of 1792-1800 following the French Revolution, Saint-Michel was renamed ''Sablons''. During the 19th century, some villas are getting build south of the town, constituting a new neighbourhood more oriented towards the seafront. In the early 20th century, with the advent of paid vacations for workers, many city dwellers from

or even Paris headed for the coast. This new summer tourism led to the development of a number of seaside resorts, including Tharon-Plage, 2 km south of the center of the town, which continues to expand today. At the end of the Second World War, when the Loire-Inférieure region was liberated in August 1944, Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef was among the territories still occupied by the Germans in the Saint-Nazaire pocket, stretching from the

Vilaine The Vilaine (; ) is a river in Brittany, in the west of France. The river's source is in the Mayenne ''Département in France, département'' (53), and it flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Pénestin in the Morbihan ''département'' (56). It is ...

estuary to

. Here, liberation only took place on May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of the German army.

Territorial organisation

The municipal territory is organized into three main areas.

A rural east side

The first, to the east of the departmental road that crosses the territory from north to south, is a rural area with a few hamlets and farms. The Gâtineaux pond and the hamlets of Aubaudière, Haute Aiguillon, Haut-Village and Chanteloup dot the landscape. This area is crossed by the D78 towards Saint-Père-en-Retz and another Saint-Michel biscuits production site straddling the two communes, and by the D136 towards Chauvé.

Town center of Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef

Located in the north-west of the town, flanked by the Atlantic Ocean and the Departementale Expressway, the town center is the first place where the local population settles. It is home to the town hall, the main church and other services such as the post office, a media library, a small cinema, as well as a number of cafés and restaurants. The village is also home to the original Saint Michel cookie factory. The two elementary school and the supermarket are also in the immediate vicinity. Saint-Michel's beaches include Plage du Redois and Plage de Gohaud, an interesting spot for surfing.

Tharon-Plage

Tharon lies 2.2 km south-west of the village of Saint-Michel, in the south-western part of the commune. It adjoins the seaside resort of ''Le Cormier'', part of the commune of La Plaine-sur-Mer, from which it is separated by the "''ruisseau de la Tabardière''". This resort, one of the most important on the Côte de Jade, has been awarded Blue Flag status. Chalets were first built on the beach in 1895. In 1902, three friends (Ferdinand Boismain, Arthur du Chatelier and François Guillou) signed a joint deed of purchase for a 120 ha 48 ca property located between the ''Calais'' and ''Tharon'' rivers (including 21 ha of vines), and decided to subdivide the area to sell "Les Sables". They called on Nantes architect Ernest Chevrier to design the complex (one of the resort's main avenues was named after him). In 1906, the inauguration of the

- Paimbœuf metre-gauge railway line boosted the development of Tharon-Plage. A station was built for the purpose (located where the tourist office now stands). However, the line was closed in 1939. By 1910, 188 lots had been sold. Buyers came from Nantes, the Pays de Retz and, later, the Angers region. Thus was born Tharon-Plage, the "Pearl of the Côte de Jade". During the second world war, the beach town has been occupied by the German army and some fortifications were built, still visible today when going towards Le Cormier. After the war, the resort grew to be what it is known for today: a few apartment complexes have been built, shops and restaurants opened on the see front. A few services and amenities are opened for residents and tourists: the neighborhood has a pharmacy, two bakeries, a post office annex and a small convenience store. However, residents and tourists are still quite dependent on services outside the beach town, notably located in the town center of Saint-Michel or in Pornic. The Sainte-Anne chapel, bordered by tall pine trees, is the venue for religious ceremonies and cultural events. In the late 2010s, the sea front between the Ernest Chevrier avenue and the Comberge marina harbour has been remodeled to ensure better and safer mobility and access to the beach. Image:Chapelle Saint-Anne de Tharon.jpg, Image:Tharon-Plage, pêcheries.jpg, Image:Tharon-Plage, Bd de l'océan.jpg,

Population

Demography

According to the Insee classification in 2020, Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef is part of the Pornic Functional Area and the Saint-Nazaire urban unit or urban area. The first has a population of 37,126 in 2021, organized around the town of

, an important hub in the département. The second, with 190,847 inhabitants at the same date, is organized around the port and industrial city of

, the fourth-largest regional hub. The commune is also part of the

agglomeration community with 14 other communes. In 2021, the commune had a population of 5,324, up 14.69% on 2015 ( Loire-Atlantique: +6.78%,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

excluding

Mayotte Mayotte ( ; , ; , ; , ), officially the Department of Mayotte (), is an Overseas France, overseas Overseas departments and regions of France, department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is one of the Overseas departm ...

: +1.84%).

Local culture and heritage

Lieux et monuments

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

Saint-Michel church (late 19th century), featuring a statue of Saint Michel overcoming the devil by Vallet. Numerous seafood decorations. A plaque commemorating the 14-18 war is located on the right as you enter, beneath a stained-glass window depicting acts of war in the trenches. StMichCC (4).jpg, Inside of the church StMichCC (8).jpg, Saint Michel overcoming the devil StMichCC (5).jpg, Confessional. StMichCC (6).jpg, Cross 44 Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef PIE1.JPG, Stained glass window commemorating the 14-18 war. StMichCC (7).jpg, Stained glass window detail Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef church.jpg Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef église.jpg *Sainte-Anne-de-Tharon chapel, home to objects from the Buzay

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

, including the oldest crucifix in the Pays de Retz (dating from the 14th century), another Christ from the 16th century and a statue from the 18th century. *Castle of Tharon: only vestiges remain, in particular a ruined tower. *La Cossonnière castle. *Old fishermen's houses. *Windmills at Beaulieu, La Proutière and La Sicaudais (1842). StMichCC (24).jpg, Moulin de la Proutière. *Calvaries, ossuary and wayside crosses. StMichCC (9).jpg, StMichCC (23).jpg, StMichCC (27).jpg, StMichCC (10).jpg, StMichCC (21).jpg, StMichCC (25).jpg, StMichCC (26).jpg, StMichCC (14).jpg, StMichCC (20).jpg, *Seaside follies and beautiful seafront residences at Tharon-Plage. *Saint-Michel du Redois, Comberge and Tharon beaches, dominated by schist cliffs and ancient wooded dunes. StMichCC (28).jpg, Plage de Comberge et pêcheries. StMichCC (1).jpg, Embouchure d'un petit cours d'eau, plage de Comberge. *The vast Gatineaux pond is ideal for fishing. *Comberge harbor, accessible only at high tide. *Bois Roy park *Tallureau wood *Town hall, administrative buildings StMichCC (3).jpg, Town hall. StMichCC (22).jpg, Olympic rings next to the townhall during the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. StMichCC (2).jpg, War memorial StMichCC (18).jpg, Mosaic at the entrance to the town, on the D78 road. StMichCC (12).jpg, Post Office. StMichCC (11).jpg, Library Lettres-de-mon-moulin. StMichCC (13).jpg, L'Horizon public primary school. StMichCC (15).jpg, Sainte-Bernadette private primary school StMichCC (19).jpg, Old well. StMichCC (17).jpg, Cemetery and calvary StMichCC (16).jpg, Cemetery

References

External links

* {{authority control Saintmichelchefchef Pornic Agglo Pays de Retz Populated coastal places in France