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François Beaudouin leaves us

François Beaudouin leaves us

Published on 17 May 2013 - Updated 10 June 2013
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 11 ans

Culture, Training and research

François Beaudouin, the honorary curator of the Musée d’intérêt national de la batellerie in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, passed away on 5 May 2013 at 84 years of age. As the father of fluvial nautical archaeology, his research activities above all improved our knowledge of the Loire's traditional boats – as far back as the first monoxylic pirogue.

François sailed the seas before becoming curator of the Musée de la batellerie when it was founded in 1968, until 1994.

He produced several invaluable studies and monographs about Loire boats, including "Le Chaland de Loire" from 1983. He also lent a generous hand in shipyards recreating traditional Loire boats: the "La Monjeannaise" chaland (1989 in Montjean-sur-Loire) and scute médiéval (2007 in Savonnières).

Mission Val de Loire had invited him to host the inaugural conference of the prologue of the “Remontée du sel” (Salt goes upriver) event in 2007 at the Hôtel de région in Nantes. This kept a close eye on a final project aimed at publishing a summary work of his studies on traditional Loire boats.

A whole host of boating folk came with their boats to pay a final tribute to François Beaudouin, who has been buried in Le Fresnes (Loire-Atlantique) where he had moved upon his retirement.