Navigating La Rochelle

At first glance, it's hard to tell if La Rochelle is a sleepy French village or a cosmopolitan city.

The place has the chic restaurants and upmarket yacht berths associated with new world France, but they are combined with alabaster streets and a distinctly old port charm. It feels like an old and simple village, yet it's stocked like a royal capital.

The city, located about 480 kilometres west of Paris, is the ...