Places to visit Industry Pays De La Loire

Goubault's oldest printer, Goubault is no less at the cutting edge of technology. Since 1995, this company has been awarded the "green imprim" label thanks to intelligent management of its waste and the use of plant inks. A one-and-a-half hour tour at the heart of an impressive workshop, of printers passionate over the last four generations. This visit will particularly delight children.

This site visit shows the solutions of "sustainable development" found by Véolia cleanliness in order to respond to one of the greatest challenges: what do we do with our waste so that we don't with the planet? It is a two-hour journey to the country of waste proposed to you. The transformation of the latter into mineral, organic and energy resources will no longer have a secret for you thanks to the visits of the selective collection centre, the high-performance sorting centre, and the energy recovery unit.

Labelled since 1146 in the cartulaire of Saint Florent, the Forges Forges site is a former charcoal smelter operated in its current form since the th, but known for processing ore since the th century. Today it is a magnificent place, like any old metallurgical site, including a pond, a splendid house of master housing and operating buildings. It is very good for you to walk in fine weather and during the beautiful season, a walk with terrace welcomes you on the water side. It is absolutely imperative, if you want to know the techniques of this profession, now almost disappeared, to attend the animations during which a team of professionals will show you a demonstration, from the manufacture of the mould to the sand to the finished piece.

A soil rich in iron ore, a territory covered by forests and water favored the birth of metallurgy in the country of Châteaubriant in the seventeenth century. The Hunaudière forges, the site of La Forge Neuve… the beautiful houses of the master are the nostalgic remains of an industry that knows its apogee in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But the invention of the forged forge in English competition the metallurgy to wood. The use of coke in blast furnaces and the appearance of steel sound like the ice. In 1884 the last furnace, that of the Hunaudière, ceased its activity.

La Roche-sur-Yon is home to a popular café called Cafés Albert la Boutik. This café is a roaster that offers in-store shopping. Coffee lovers can find a wide selection of ground, bean, fair-trade and organic coffees, as well as teas and accessories. La Boutik also offers expert advice to help customers make their choices and discover new coffee flavors from around the world. For fans of industrial tourism, it's possible to visit the inside of the café, where you can discover automatic production lines and an educational circuit. A factory store is also on site.

The site keeps the memory of a long-lasting rural industry. The forges of Cormorin, also known as the forges of Vibraye, were founded in the ^17th century in a region where there was sufficient wood production to feed the blast furnaces and the flow of the Braye, with its diversion canal, was sufficient to turn the wheels and produce hydraulic energy. From the ^17th century, the quality of the iron from the Champrond forges was renowned as far away as Paris. For 6 generations, until the ^19th century, the forge owners were all from the same family: the Desportes.