What is the Pays de Retz?

Today, the Pays de Retz brings together about 150,000 inhabitants and extends over 1,400 square kilometres. The territory, very largely rural, is marked by an exceptional wealth of water: ponds and lakes such as that of Grand-Lieu, more than 1,000 kilometres of canals and rivers including the Acheneau, on the edge of the Land of Briord, and of course a magnificent Atlantic coastline of more than 50 kilometres. The temperate and particularly mild climate, due to the oceanic influence, makes the marshes that dot the territory a unique environment for the preservation of flora and fauna. This ecological treasure benefits, like the Land of Briord for example, from major protective measures: the ZNIEFF classifications (Natural Zone of Ecological and Faunal Interest) and Natura 2000. These measures bear witness to the importance and diversity of the species that populate the territory. The Pays de Retz is experiencing a steady growth of its population, at a rate of more than 2% per year. This demographic dynamism brings remarkable economic vigour to the territory. Nearly 30,000 jobs are distributed across the sectors of industry — notably food processing — health, construction and, of course, tourism, carried by the environmental wealth of the sites and their millennia-old history. The Terre de Briord project constitutes a great challenge of restoration, preservation and sharing. The restoration of a jewel of the Pays de Retz, a Nantes folie, an elegant witness of eighteenth-century France; the preservation of an incomparable natural environment; but also, and above all, the sharing of a regional historic treasure of which the inhabitants of the Pays de Retz have been deprived for several centuries. With the help of all the volunteers called "the Volontaires de Charette" and of the patrons — companies or individuals — who will support the project led by the Eric Peters Endowment Fund for the Preservation of Heritage, we will protect this guardian of regional history.