The essentials for understanding the Land of Briord: reference works, bibliography and historical resources on the château, Port-Saint-Père and the Pays de Retz.
The indispensable book by Jean-François CARRAËS for anyone wishing to know better the history of the Pays de Retz, and in particular that of the château of Briord. The author devotes nearly 40 extremely well-documented pages to the Land of Briord, from the feudal era to the beginning of the 20th century. This work is no longer in print but is sometimes available secondhand on Amazon.
Over the 300 pages of a work of uncommon documentary richness, the author brings back to life the history of the commune of Port-Saint-Père from the 12th century to the middle of the 20th century. The finest part of the study is given to the 19th century, from the wars in the Vendée to the difficult republican apprenticeship.
A copy will always be available for consultation in the château's reading room.
Jean-François CARRAËS is chief heritage curator, former deputy director of the Departmental Archives of Loire-Atlantique, an institution within which he worked from 1979 to 2017. Honorary president of the Archaeological and Historical Society of Nantes and Loire-Atlantique. He is a Knight of the National Order of Merit, an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, and winner of the 1995 history prize of the Société Académique de Nantes.
He is notably the author of "C'était la clé de tout le pays de Retz — Regards historiques sur Port-Saint-Père" (Hérault éditions, 2001) and "Le quai de la Fosse à Nantes — autopsie d'un quartier mythique" (Geste éditions, 2021).