Herio – Sel de Noirmoutier
The Herio – Sel de Noirmoutier brand was founded in 2019 by young Frenchman Francois Rousseau. After graduating from ESSEC Business School, he initially worked in the textile industry in Paris, Picardy, and China, before returning to his hometown to embark on the adventure of salt. His vision was to bring a traditional, local product, the salt of Noirmoutier, in stylishly designed packaging, to the kitchens and tables of a modern, globally connected generation.
Herio – Centuries of Salt Craftsmanship
The Ile de Noirmoutier is located in the Bay of Biscay, in the northwest of the Vendée. The journey across the 4km-long Passage du Gois to this elongated natural beauty, situated off the French Atlantic coast, is a special experience. At high tide, this tidal road is submerged, thus connecting Barbâtre and Beauvoir-sur-Mer only at low tide. Around one-third of the island, with its fragrant pine forests and fine sandy beaches, is covered with shimmering salt marshes, which make up a large part of the island in the north.
It is in these salt marshes, the Marais salants, that the delicious Sel de Noirmoutier is harvested for Herio. As early as the 5th century, Benedictine monks from the monastery of Herio Monasterio, founded by Saint Philbert, painstakingly transformed the swamps into salt gardens. The Herio brand owes its name to this monastery.
