Église Sainte-Catherine and Rue Haute

A minute up from the harbour, the square opens onto Sainte-Catherine: a church built by shipwrights out of oak after the Hundred Years War, with a double nave like two upturned hulls and a wooden bell tower standing on its own across the square — put there so the weight and the lightning stayed away from the church. The square is cobbled, the surrounding fronts are half-timbered and painted, and there is a market under the eaves on Saturday mornings.

This is the plan-B location and the character location at once. It is a minute from the Vieux Bassin, it is sheltered when the wind comes off the estuary, and the wood, the timbering and the cobbles give a completely different texture from the harbour's slate and water. Rue Haute and Rue de l'Homme de Bois run west from here with gallery windows, painted shutters and quieter frames all the way.

Inside the church, keep it to a few quiet frames without flash and check that no service is in progress — it is a working parish, not a monument. Saturday market mornings fill the square with stalls: good for candid family work, difficult for a clean architectural frame.