The salt of Guérande is famous all over the world. So it's good to visit the salt marshes farm to see how salt is produced if you are ever in the vicinity of Guerande.
There are basically 2 types of salt produced : "gros sel" and "fleur de sel". The first is the ordinary type of salt which is unrefined, big grain and the latter is fine salt, used supposedly only in minute doses on prepared dishes and not to be used in cooking, unlike "gros sel".
The Terre de Sel salt farm is only about 8 mins away from Guérande. It's of course preferable to have a guided tour. It's available in English and French. The short 45 min tour will give you a pretty good idea of how the salt is produced, in which it is explained clearly how they harvest the salt.
The mining of salt depends on four factors : the salt marshes, tides, wind and sun. So it's not unusual to expect that the harvest is only done during the hot season of summer, which also means that the "paludier", the salt marsh worker, has only a short time frame to do it. The fine "fleur de sel", which is only formed on the surface of the water in crystallised form, is of course harder and more delicate to harvest.
The souvenir shop there sells of course these 2 salts, but I expect those in the supermarket would retail for a better price.
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