Salt loft and its manor

Built along the Douet Mont-Blanc, later called the Ruisseau des Ouïes, the Grenier à Sel (Salt Store) housed the production of the salt factories, which were once numerous in the Touques valley; an ideal location for the boats loaded with salt to reach. Once the salt was collected by boiling a brine obtained by washing sand impregnated with sea salt, it was distributed two days a week to the inhabitants and to certain businesses in the surrounding towns.
The Manor House, a Louis XIII style building, has been listed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments since 1969 for its facade mixing Caen stone, black and white flint, its steeply pitched roof and its first floor chimney. This building from the middle of the 17th century was the headquarters of the royal administration and housed a saltworks controller and a quests clerk, both employees of the Ferme Générale (the privileged company responsible for collecting indirect taxes). They were in charge of supervising the production of the salt workers and collecting the salt taxes called "quart-bouillon" for the king.
From 52 salt works in the 13th century, only 12 remained in the 18th century. Thereafter, the place was used for the first municipal councils of the commune.
The whole of the Salt Store and the Manor are the object of a great project of rehabilitation by the commune of Touques.