The Jade Coast
The word “jade” is used for the colour. The Jade Coast, stretching from Saint-Brevin-les-Pins to Moutiers-en-Retz, is named for the relatively strong green colour of its swell. It is said it started…
with a pair of socks 🙂 In the 1930s, tourism was booming. France’s other coastal regions has given themselves names: the Côte d’Azur, the Opal Coast, the Pink Granite Coast… But this area of coast had not yet found a name. Mayors from towns along the coast were to meet one morning to discuss this. That morning, the mayor of La Bernerie-en-Retz, Louis Gautier, pulled on his socks. His wife said, “Your socks are the same colour as the sea: jade!” The mayor arrived at the meeting of mayors with that in mind and that is where the name “Jade Coast” came from.