The Golden Globe Race starts on Sep 4, 2022 from Les Sables d’Olonne on France’s Atlantic coast. It’s a remarkable race, recalling the Golden Age of solo racing. The sailors face eight months of isolation, sailing 30,000 miles across five oceans non-stop, solo and unassisted. They have 1960s technology and only the sun and the stars to guide them on the route out and back to Les Sables d’Olonne next year.

All the information about the race, the route, the sailors, their boats and more is below the section on how the race started. Apologies, but please do skip down if history is not your thing!

The inspiration behind solo, round-the-world racing…Francis Chichester

In 1966 British yachtsman Francis Chichester set out from England to sail solo around the world down to Australia where he stopped, and back. He went via the five Great Capes in his 16m Gipsy Moth IV taking 226 days.

The challenge? To beat the old Clipper ship records, and the captains who competed for the fastest delivery of grain, wool and gold.

The last clippers sailed in 1939. The route was made redundant due to the opening of the Suez and Panama canals and the introduction of marine steam engines. Sail gave way to steam.

The First Golden Globe Race

In March 1968 the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race was announced, the first non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world race. There was no entry fee and virtually no rules or qualification requirements. Nine men entered but only one finished, 29-year old Robin Knox-Johnson, in his 32-foot ketch Suhaili.

The first Golden Globe race might have had its problems, particularly with the apparent suicide of Donald Crowhurst. But the race spawned the BOC Challenge (which has not been run since 2011-2012), and the fearsome Vendée Globe, raced every four years. The next Vendée Globe is in 2024.

50 years after that first extraordinary venture, the Golden Globe race was run again. In 2018 18 sailors started and five finished. It was won by Jean-Luc Van den Heede, who took  211 days at sea.

The Inspiration and Organiser of the Golden Globe 2022

The race is run with extraordinary efficiency and good humour, as well as toughness, by Australian Don McIntyre. A lifelong adventurer and sailor, Don is one of Australia’s most experienced sailors. He came second in the 1990 BOC Challenge single-handed around the world yacht race, the highest placing for an Australian at the time. He’s the founder of the Golden Globe Race as well as the Ocean Globe Race which departs in 2023.

He was everywhere in Les Sables d’Olonne at the beginning of the 2022 race, at press launches, at interviews and always encouraging the sailors. He spoke to every single sailor before they set off on Sept 4, and is now overseeing the race.

Check Don McIntyre out at McIntyre Adventure.

The Route of the Golden Globe 2022

The Golden Globe race takes the same route from the Vendée Globe, taking an east-about circumnavigation, like the Vendée Globe, starting and finishing in Les Sables d’Olonne.

The 30,000-mile race has 4 rendezvous gates where the sailors pass over films and letters and can be interviewed as they sail by (but don’t stop). The four gates are Lanzarote, Cape Town, Storm Bay in Tasmania and Punta del Este.

But I wonder if it’s good or bad for the sailors to have one fleeting moment (in Tasmania) to see (but go nowhere near) their families and friends?

Whatever they think and feel, the dropping off of their film gives us, the audience, the chance to see what they are up against.

The Boats in the Golden Globe Race 2022

These are not the sleek, hugely expensive and highly technical boats that competitors use in the Vendée Globe enabling them to circumnavigate the globe in under 80 days.

By contrast, the Golden Globe race takes around 250 days. These are small, old production fibre-glass boats between 32ft and 36ft overall (9.75-10.97m) in length and designed before 1988. They must have a full-length keel with the rudder attached to their trailing edge. They’re heavily built and strong and sailing them relies as much on the skill and endurance of the skippers as human strength. It’s notable that many of this year’s entrants are in their 60s.

What the Sailors need to enter the Golden Globe Race

Entry is by invitation only. Sailors must be over 18. They must have at least 8,000 miles ocean sailing experience, another 2,000 miles singlehanded in any boat. Finally they have to have an additional 2,000 miles solo in their Golden Globe Race boat.

It makes for a nerve wracking experience.

Pre the Golden Globe Race

The American and Canadian sailors have to cross the ocean to get to the registration point to enter the 2022 Golden Globe Race.

Most of them rendezvous in Asturias for the 240 nautical mile SITRAN race from Gijón to Les Sables d’Olonne. It’s the first time the competitors race together, comparing speeds and techniques across the Bay of Biscay. This year 15 skippers took part and it was won by Frenchman Damien Guillou.

The Golden Globe Sailors in 2022

There are 16 skippers registered including one woman, Kirsten Neuschäfer from South Africa.

Here’s Kirsten Neuschäfer’s experience.

The Rules

The rules are the same as for the 1960’s era of Robin Knox-Johnston. The sailors use sextants and paper charts, wind up clocks and cassette tapes for music. They calculate the weather themselves, and hand write their logs. They receive no help as to their position unless it is a real emergency and if they do that there are consequences.

Of course there are more rules, many of them to do with technicalities of the boats. Find out more here.

Safety of the Skippers

The event organisers issue a standard Race Pack to each sailor to be used in extreme circumstances/accidents.  Among other items the pack includes a stand-alone satellite tracking system which the skippers cannot see. This is for web tracking updates. There’s a two-way satellite short text paging unit that only connects with race HQ. Two handheld satellite phones allow up to four short messages per day. And there’s a sealed box with two portable GPS chart plotters – strictly for emergency use only. 

All skippers are tracked 24/7 by the organisers for their safety but if in danger they can break open their safety pack with its GPS and satellite phone. Doing that however means they have retired from the main race. Like any skipper who makes one stop, they are then moved into the Chichester Class.  If the sailor finishes no later than 3pm on Jun 14, 2023, they receive a Chichester finishing plaque.

Any skipper making two stops is disqualified from the race.

Les Sables d’Olonne and the Golden Globe Race Village

The village is where the action takes place. It opened on August 20, 2022 with a great ceremony and of course fireworks at the end. Each day there are notable events, from climbing a mast to concerts, from learning how to navigate via the star to a maritime carousel and of course a guingette (bar) that stays open to 2am.

It’s free and is enormous fun as well as giving everyone the chance to see the boats, and talk to the sailors.

News on the Golden Globe Race

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to Les Sables d’Olonne on a trip that will take in both this delightful town on the west coast, and the Golden Globe Race start. So I’ll post about that great event, and keep you up to date throughout the next 250 days or so on the progress of those solo sailors way out in the world’s great oceans.

Here is the latest update and news which I will continue to update as the race progresses. Now the winner has come in – Kirsten Neuschäfer who sailed back into Les Sables d’Olonne on Thursday April 27, 2023, at 9.43pm.

But strangely she was not the first over the line. That honour went to Simon Curwen who sailed a magnificent race but broke a wind vane and had to stop for 4 days to make repairs. He was put into the Chichester Class. But being such a superb sailor he not only regained the lost sea miles but overtook everyone else to arrive at Les Sables d’Olonne earlier on Thursday April 27, 2023.

If you want to know more about the technical aspects of the race (in an easily digestible read), then click on Alastair McKenzie’s Mech Traveller piece – Golden Globe Race 2022 – Sailing ‘Old School’.

Discover more

Golden Globe Race website. The official website has some great links, including the live tracker.

More about Les Sables d’Olonne

More about Vendée Tourism

More about the fabulous French Atlantic Coast

Vendée Globe Race 2020

I travelled to France via Newhaven to Dieppe courtesy of DFDS. More ferries to France information. I was on a self-driving trip, visiting Les Sables d’Olonne as a guest of Vendée Tourisme and Les Sables d’Olonne Tourisme.

The post Golden Globe Race 2022 – A Heroic Adventure appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Loire Valley drive from Saumur to Saint-Nazaire is the final part of our journey from (nearly) source to sea of the great river. In the section from Saumur to Angers you’re still in the Valley of the Kings with some magnificent châteaux to visit. Then you enter a part of France that looks west out to the Atlantic and beyond and it feels quite different.

Loire Valley Drive Routes

Fast Route: Saumur to Saint-Nazaire is 209 kms/130 miles taking around 2 hrs 15 mins. The A11 autoroute has tolls of €15.

Scenic Route: 247 kms/153.50 miles taking 4 hrs 30 mins.

Saumur to the Château de Brézé

Drive: Take the D93 for 11.5 kms/7 miles taking 15 mins to the Château de Brézé.

The Château is a real oddity with a long history stretching back to the 11th century. Most remarkably it’s remained through the centuries in the family of the Lords of Brézé. The family managed a judicial mix of inheritance and marriage (including a particularly advantageous one to an ancestor of Colbert, Louis XIV’s powerful Minister in the 17th century).

Today you see the impressive Renaissance and later neo-Gothic château and its rich interiors. But more interesting is the building under the château. Once a troglodyte dwelling, the owners built a house above ground but kept the underground galleries (3 kms/2 miles). Bedrooms, food storage rooms, a bakery and stables were used as a defence during the 11^th-century Viking raids, and at all times to escape the harshest of winters and the dreaded plague.

In the mid 1440s Gilles of Maillé-Brézé built a new Renaissance-style château. He added fortifications and dug out the moat but left the underground structure intact. The dry moat around the walls of the castle is extraordinary, with just two entrances to the château beneath the château.

Chateau de Brézé

The BBC made a documentary about the underground section, calling it a ‘medieval Doomsday bunker’.

On to another oddity – The Château de Brissac

Drive: Take the D761 for 45 kms/28 miles taking around 40 mins.

The Château de Brissac has been in the same family since 1502. When you visit you might meet the owner, the Marquis Charles-André de Brissac who lives here with his wife and four children. If you do you’ll hear some great stories about the family.

Brissac is the tallest château in France, a lofty seven storeys, described by the owner as the ‘Giant of the Loire Valley’. It’s splendidly decorated as you’d expect but with its portraits and photographs has the feel of a family home – albeit a pretty posh one.

There’s a lavish small theatre created by Jeanne Say, Marchioness of Brissac for the family’s Belle Epoque Parisian friends. She entertained them with her own performances (she was a notable singer) and from 1890 to 1916 with her annual opera festival.

Make sure you go down to the kitchen which is worth a visit and also houses a very good shop. The Château hosts an annual Christmas fair so if you’re in the region, check it out.  

Château de Brissac

Château de Brissac to Angers

Drive: D748 and D87 for 20 kms/12.5 miles, 20 mins into Angers.

Angers

The ancient capital of Anjou is a delightful town with a formidable Château surrounded by a wall that boasts seventeen circular towers. The main attraction is the extraordinary Tapestry of the Apocalypse. The 14th-century masterpiece shows the story of the Day of Judgement. Walk around the panels on the walls of the dimly lit gallery and you’re looking at the stuff of medieval nightmares. It’s one of the greatest tapestries of France. Then look at the 20th-century equivalent; it’s equally powerful with its atomic bomb nightmares.

Angers Tourist Office

On from Angers

This part of the Loire Valley drive from Angers to Saint-Nazaire takes you out of the Valley of the Kings with its magnificent châteaux where the monarchs of France lived, loved and lost.

There were different priorities in this western part of France. Paris and the central Loire Valley were far away, though connected via the river. It was Brittany, wild, independent until the 16^th century, and looking towards the ocean rather than rural France, that dominated the region.

And there’s one more classic château to visit.

Château de Serrant

Drive: Take the D523 and D723 for 18.5 kms/11.5 miles and around 20 mins towards Saint-Georges-sur-Loire. Just before the town you’ll come to the Château de Serrant.

Started in the 16th century and finished two centuries later, the Château stands in a large park. It’s stately inside, decorated with furniture of the style set to impress. You can visit most of the rooms, the park and kitchens on your own.

If you want to venture into the impressive library with its 12,000 books, the Empire room for Napoleon and the grand Duchess’s room, you have to take the guided tour.

Château de Serrant

On to…Nantes

The A11 autoroute is the quickest road to Nantes. It’s 84 kms/51 miles and takes around an hour. But it does have tolls of around €9.

OR…If you can’t bear to leave the Loire after such a long journey, take the D752 and the D723 for 40 kms/25 miles taking around 45 mins to Ancenis. Here the Bretagne-Anjou suspension bridge crosses the Loire, dividing the two departments Maine-et-Loire and Loire Atlantique. Old quays and warehouses line the banks of the once busy river port where the bridge, the ‘key to Brittany’ as it was called, controlled the river traffic into Nantes.

Drive: From Ancenis stay on the D723 before taking the A811 into Nantes. It’s 45 kms/28 miles taking around 45 mins.

Nantes

Nantes is one of my favorite cities and I’m not alone in my admiration of it.

When you get to Nantes, there’s a feeling of the ocean. Nantes is an estuary city, looking west towards the Atlantic. It’s also a fabulous city which has reinvented itself over the last 15 years or so.

Nantes was once the capital of an independent Brittany, owing its later 18^th century fame and fortune to the Atlantic trade to America, exporting Africans into slavery from here.

There’s plenty to see here including the 15th-century Château des Ducs, and most notably Les Machines de L’Ȋle, an innovative, vast company that makes huge machines in the shapes of carousels, elephants, and most recently the Dragon of Calais.

You might want to finish your trip here and stay in Nantes. if you do, you have the wonderful Atlantic coast to explore. The Vendée department is glorious, well worth a long stay.

If you’re a sailor, Les Sables d’Olonne is the place to make for. This small city hosts the Vendée Globe solo round the world race every four years. The next Vendée Globe race is in 2024.

And one of the most exciting, and eccentric solo, round-the-world race has just finished. The Golden Globe is a heroic race in small boats using 1960s technology and the sun and stars to navigate by. The last one started on Sep 4, 2022 and finished in June 2023.

Loire Valley Drive from Nantes to the end at Saint-Nazaire

Drive: Take the D723, the D77 and D277 for 67 kms/26 miles taking around 1 hr 15 mins.

The road skirts the southern part of the estuary so get a map of that part from the tourist office to look at the artworks along the river. They are quite startling and are all part of the annual Voyage à Nantes annual festival. It runs July 1 to September 3, 2023.

Right at the top of the estuary mouth you’ll see the last of the Nantes sculptures. The Serpent d’Océan lies stranded on the beach north of Saint Brevins-les-Pins.

Here you cross the mighty suspension bridge into Saint-Nazaire.

Saint-Nazaire

Saint-Nazaire is an industrial city with one of the largest shipyards in the world. Try to visit the Chantiers de l’Atlantique; its sheer scale is impressive. And don’t miss the story of the great Atlantic passenger liners, most of them built here.

The Industrial Heritage of Saint-Nazaire

But Saint-Nazaire has another side with its beaches, walks, new restaurants and bars. Well worth a visit.

So we come to the end of a long journey with this Loire Valley drive from Saumur to Saint-Nazaire.

The Valley of the Kings in the central part of the Loire is undoubtedly the most impressive and is the most visited. But I hope you might have been encouraged to visit the wilder parts of the Loire in this series of articles.

More Information

Loire Valley Towns and Cities with attractions, places to stay and how to get to each one

Loire Valley Drive in Sections

From Le Puy-en-Velay to Nevers
From Nevers to Orléans
From Orléans to Blois
From Blois to Tours
From Tours to Saumur

French Atlantic Coast

Major Rivers of France

Loire à Velo Route – Where to stay, how to book and attractions to see on this great cycle route

Budget Hotel Chains give you some good options on cheap (and good) accommodation in all parts of France

Departments of France

New Regions of France

The post Loire Valley from Saumur to Saint-Nazaire appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Ile d’Aix is one of my favorite places in France. The peaceful island on the glorious French Atlantic coast is ideal for families: there are no cars, the island is small and there’s enough to keep everyone happy. It’s the place to enjoy leisurely bicycle rides with the sea on one side and sandy tracks and trees on the other. You’ll see pretty little single-storey houses with brightly painted shutters and hollyhocks growing outside. There are three museums (which won’t take long but are all delightful) and a fort to visit.

Above all it’s the perfect place just to chill out.

Ile d’Aix might not be as well known as its posh and much larger neighbor, Ile de Ré, but it has quite a place in French history.

Where is Ile d’Aix?

Ile d’Aix is one of three islands off La Rochelle in the Charente-Maritime department on the French Atlantic coast. It’s tucked into the Charentais archipelago in the Bay of Biscay protected by Ile d’Oléron to the south and Ile de Ré to the north with Fort Boyard directly to the west. Strategically important as an island in the mouth of the Charente river where the famous ports of Rochefort and La Rochelle were vital in the story of the French Navy, this little island has seen more than its fair share of turbulence.

It’s just 3 kms long and 600 metres wide with a population of around 200, making it one of the smallest communes in France.

It wasn’t always an island; when the Romans occupied France it was connected to the mainland at low tide. In 1500 Ile d’Aix slipped away into the ocean.

Getting to Ile d’Aix

Ile d’Aix is accessible by boat from Pointe de la Fumée in Fouras, a 20-minute journey. For more information check the ferry website or tel: + 00 33 (0)8 20 16 00 17. + 33 (0)5 46 82 76 72.

In summer ferries run also from La Rochelle, Ile d’Oléron and Ile de Ré.

Entertainment begins at Fouras where French holidaymakers have to manoeuvre their huge carts piled high with everything a French family needs on holiday onto the ship. It can be hazardous; steer clear of the carts.

Getting around Ile d’Aix

Hire a bicycle from any of the several hire shops in the main village.

You can also take a horse-drawn carriage ride. Tel.: 00 33 (0)5 46 82 76 72. Mobile: +33 (0)6 87 23 11 49.

If you’re more interested in what to see and do and where to stay and eat, skip the history and scroll down!

A small island with a big(ish) history

Like many parts of France, Ile d’Aix was fought over by the French and the English. The island became English in 1360. But 15 years later is was back in French hands.

When Rochefort on the mainland was fortified in the 17^th century, Vauban built a grand fortress on Ile d’Aix as well. During the Seven Years War the island was captured, again, by the British in 1757. They destroyed the Vauban ramparts then retreated. They returned again two years later and stayed here until 1763.

After the English departure the French army once again rebuilt the defences. The French officers involved included the captain of the French Royal Engineering Corps, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. He spent much of his time here writing the novel which ensured his fame, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a tale of seduction, ruin, vengeance and the wages of sin,

Darker times returned during the French Revolution of 1794. Used as a prison, hundreds of priests were left to die in prison boats moored in the harbour.

The island remained a useful prison. Fort Liédot housed Russians during the Crimean War of 1854, Prussians in 1870 and civilian insurgents in 1871. For two years Ahmed Ben Bella, future President of Algeria, was imprisoned here with his supporters.
It’s an interesting place to visit. Information on visiting Fort Liédot in Le Bois.

Religion and Ile d’Aix – an unlikely combination

Ile d’Aix punched far above its weight as an important religious centre. The Abbey of Cluny established the Priory Saint-Martin in 1067 and there it remained for nearly three centuries, lording it over parishes and religious houses in La Rochelle and its surrounds.

Abandoned in 1343 as the wars between France and England intensified, only the east wing of the priory remains. Beside it stand the transept, north apse and crypt of the original church where many of those who died on the prison boats are buried. It’s a romantic, rather austere place.

Napoleon’s Ile d’Aix

Realising the importance of this part of France, Napoleon started the construction of the massive Fort Boyard in 1801.

Today the formidable structure has no purpose, except for those passing in boats who want to see the gaunt sea fortress. Completed in 1857 it became famous through the French game show, Fort Boyard, first shown in 1990.

Back on Ile d’Aix…

…Napoleon arrived here to inspect the place in 1808. He ordered the reinforcing of the fortifications, the construction of a house for the island’s commander and the building of Fort Liédot.

A year later the British and French navies fought just off the island. The small British fleet destroyed some of the French ships; the battle was indecisive but Napoleon’s instinct had been right.

Everything changed for ‘Boney’ in 1815 after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. He arrived on Ile d’Aix on July 12^th to a rapturous welcome by the few inhabitants and prepared to set sail for America and freedom. With the Royal Navy blockading the island he attempted negotiations with the enemy. Perfidious Albion (the English) first dangled the idea of England and on July 14^th he wrote a letter to the Prince Regent in London from the commander’s house where he was staying asking for political asylum.

The next day he dressed in his uniform and was taken by the British to HMS Bellerophon which sailed to Plymouth. From there he was transported to St Helena for his final years. He died on May 5, 1821.

The only town on Ile d’Aix

Arriving from the ferry, take the small road through the original crumbling double fortifications of Fort Rade. Once surrounded by a wide water-filled moat, today it’s the place to go for the lighthouses and views out to Fort Boyard. 

Walk through a gate complete with drawbridge (never actually closed or drawn up) to the only small town on the island. It’s ambitious, with roads at right angles and the sense of being much larger. Here you’ll find the only hotel on the island, museums, shops and that all-important cycle hire.

The little town fronts onto the Place d’Austerlitz, once a parade ground, now a pretty open space with houses built around it in a semi-circle.

Attractions on Ile d’Aix

Musée Napoléon

The original commander’s house is grand from the outside, but charmingly domestic inside. The place where Napoleon spent his last three days of freedom tells a small part of the story of this extraordinary man. It’s full of fading maps and pictures, artefacts like a shelf full of pipes, busts and statues.

Wander through the rooms, taking in the small bedchamber where he wrote that famous letter to the Prince Regent that was destined to become just a museum exhibit. There’s a room of Napoleonic memorabilia showing his progress through the rank to Emperor; there are maps, clocks given to the Emperor, and lots of engravings from his life.

Napoleon’s descendants continue the story of the house

One of the most surprising discoveries is the Gourgaud Room in the former drawing room. It’s a lovely story that begins with General Baron Garpard Gourgaud (1783-1852), Napoleon’s ever faithful aide-de-camp who followed Napoleon after Waterloo to Aix to hand over Napoleon’s asylum demand, then accompanied him to St Helena, staying there to 1818.

The story becomes intriguing when you see the portraits of his great-grandson Baron Napoleon Gourgaud (1881-1944) and his American wife Eva Gebhard (1876-1958), the daughter of a New York multi-millionaire. Dividing their time between Paris and Aix, the successful art dealer couple championed the likes of Picasso, Braque, Cezanne and Matisse. In 1925 the couple decided to buy the house where Napoleon had stayed and restore it as a museum. It opened in September 1928.

In 1933 they founded the African Museum with many of the stuffed animals coming from the Baron’s own big-game hunting exploits in Africa in 1913 to1914, 1928 and 1930 to 1931. They were apparently stuffed by the foremost taxidermist of the time, Rowland Ward of London (amazing what you can learn in the most unexpected places). The museum is not very politically correct to modern thinking, but it gives a fascinating insight into the life of the wealthy 100-odd years ago. Paintings of Africa make up the rest of the museum.

Information on both museums here.

Atelier-Boutique de la Nacre

If you’re interested in mother of pearl, visit the Atelier-Boutique de la Nacre. It’s a museum and shop where you can see the precious shells in their first incarnation, how they grow, what they are made of. Then buy some of the pretty jewellery in the shop. Place de l’Eglise, tel.: 00 33 (0)5 46 84 66 17.

And that’s the sightseeing done!

What else to do on Ile d’Aix

Well…very little apart from enjoying the island’s natural beauty. You can just go for the day but I recommend a longer stay.

Hire a bicycle and take a day pedaling slowly around the island. The views out to sea are wonderful and the last time I was there the replica boat L’Hermione from Rochefort could be seen in the distance. She was surrounded by small sailing and motor boats getting a closer glimpse.

The original L’Hermione took General Lafayette to fight with the Americans against the Brits in the American Revolutionary War in the late 1770s and 1780. Lafayette’s château is very near my house in the Auvergne, but that’s for another time.

Either take a picnic and stop anywhere, or find one of the little cafes and restaurants that hug the coastline.

Where to stay on Ile d’Aix

There’s one main hotel, a couple of campsites, some bed and breakfasts and a Pierre et Vacances residence.

The best option is the Hôtel Napoleon.

The former home of the Baron Gourgaud who restored the museum, the hotel is a pleasant building on the edge of town. It has 18 pretty rooms decorated in chic seaside style that perfectly hits the spot. Views from the bedrooms are either onto the street (and the tourist Office opposite) or the courtyard and the sea.

Where to eat on Ile d’Aix

The little restaurants and cafes in the village are good. If you like seafood Ile d’Aix is a real treat. Try Chez Josephine (what else?), the restaurant attached to the Hotel Napoleon. Sit outside and look over the green spaces of the Place d’Austerlitz where fabulous sunsets dip over the distant fortifications.  The cooking is seasonal, fresh and very good value.

Everyone rates Bar Beau Teint at the exit of the village as one of the best restaurants on the island (tel: +33 6 65 15 59 38). Go a little further to Les Paillottes in Bois Joly, tel.: 00 33 (0)5 46 84 66 24. Park your bicycle and take a seat under the shady terrace for good seafood.

The village and environs have several other restaurants, along with simple, takeaway sandwich places for picnics.

Ile d’Aix Tourist Office

Charente-Maritime Tourist Office

More on this part of France

Discover more about Napoleon’s France (including Ile d’Aix as well as Paris, Boulogne, and the Route Napoleon in Provence).

French Atlantic Coast

Ile de Ré

If you’re interested in sailing, the French Atlantic coast is important, particularly for Vendée Globe Race. It takes place every four years and is the world’s foremost round-the-world, non stop solo race. The last one started in Les Sables d’Olonne in November 2020 and finished in the spring of 2021.

More about the glorious Vendée department.

The post Charming Ile d’Aix off the French Atlantic Coast appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The Vendée is glorious. The air from the Atlantic sweeps in along a coastal landscape where long sandy beaches are backed by sand dunes. Estuaries provide sanctuaries for all kinds of birds; small coves invite you to dig in the sand for clams and cockles and the ocean invites you to take a yacht out into the blue and beyond.

The protected coastline of the Côte Lumière (Luminous Coast) stretches 155 miles/250 kms along the shore. Of that coast 86 miles/140 kms make up the Vendée beaches. Out to sea, the island of Ile d’Yeu is wild and rocky, while Noirmoutier takes you back to a gentler past.

The Vendée has always felt far from Paris and a centralised government. In 1793 small towns and villages resisted the Revolution, an uprising that was put down with extreme brutality.

The strange and peaceful marshy Marais Poitevin is the second largest wetland area in France after the Camargue in the south of France.

The Vendée is well known to the French, but less so by foreign visitors. If you haven’t been there, you’re really missing out. It’s a seductive part of France to visit.

First Things First: Where is the Vendée?

The Vendée is the southernmost department of the Pays de la Loire region.

Butting up to Brittany, the Vendée stretches from south of the Loire where Nantes is the last major city before the river flows into the Atlantic to just north of Ile de Ré in Charente-Maritime.

Explore the Vendée Coast

The Islands

Noirmoutier

Ȋle de Ré is the chic choice along this part of the Atlantic coast, particularly for Parisians. Ȋle de Noirmoutier has everything its sophisticated neighbour does, but it’s much more low key.

Get to Noirmoutier either by the Passage du Gois, a causeway that connects to the mainland at low tide, or by the long bridge (toll free).

Here you’re in a world of buckets and spades where locals foraging for cockles, mussels and razor clams. Sand dunes are backed by forests of oaks and fragrant maritime pines. Cycle paths that take you into the middle of the island where artisan salt makers practice their craft.

Noirmoutier does have a chic side. La Plage des Dames has painted wooden beach huts and beachfront restaurants. Just behind the beach there’s a shady wood. It’s a lovely spot which the Impressionist artist Renoir painted in 1892.

Noirmoutier became fashionable during the Belle Epoque between 1880 and 1914. Rich outsiders came here to build spacious, elegant villas among the trees and enjoy the new bains de mer sport. Even today the island seems caught in the 19^th century.

It has one more claim to fame. The island produces a great regional food: the best potatoes in the world, according to potato experts. They are also the most expensive.

Ȋle d’Yeu

Further south, Ȋle d’Yeu lies 10 miles/17 kms off the coast. Once the major tuna fishing port on the Atlantic coast, today it’s still an active fishing port. So if you’re eating here, order monkfish, sole, turbot, sea bream or shellfish. It’s wilder than Noirmoutier and accessible by ferry only. There’s a great walk along the unspoilt Côte Sauvage along the GR80 footpath.

Coastal Towns along the Vendée Coast

Little resorts, coastal towns and fishing ports are dotted along the coast. They offer sports from sailing to sand yachting or horse riding along the sands. In Saint-Jean-de-Monts try the Thalasso spas.

In Saint Gilles Croix de Vie visit the great sardine canning factory, La Perle des Dieux.  (Believe me, it’s fascinating). If you don’t do that, buy sardines from the food truck Le Banc des Sardines.

Then wander around the Quartier du Maroc, a section of fishermens’ cottages built by Moroccan sailors in the 16^th century.

The best known coastal town is Les Sables d’Olonne which has been delighting holiday makers since 1866 when the railways first brought people from Nantes and Paris to the Atlantic coast.

It’s a great yachting town, partly because of its boat builders and partly due to Its impressive yachting marina.

This is the starting point for the world’s greatest solo, unassisted, round-the-world-race held every four years. The last Vendée Globe, aka the Everest of the Seas, set out from here on November 8, 2020 at 13.02. The world watched as the 33 skippers battled their way through dangerous and icy seas for over three months.

Here’s a full guide to the Vendée Globe with some videos to take you out into the ocean, plus facts about the race, boats, skippers and more.

In September 2022 another race set out from Les Sables-d’Olonne, the Golden Globe round the world solo race. As of February 2023 it’s still on course. If that seems a long time, it’s because all the boats are pre 1968 with technology from that era (i.e. very little). Read about its progress with the news and updates here.

For a really good description of Les Sables d’Olonne, read Maigret’s Holiday by Georges Simenon and follow the detective as he walks the streets and pauses in cafes for coffee or a glass of white wine.

Towns and Cities

Fontenay-le-Comte

On the south east border, Fontenay-le-Comte was the capital of the Vendée until 1804. Its streets are full of delightful streets of old houses, overlooked by the Château de Terre-Neuve.

Built in 1580 for the soldier-poet Nicolas Rapin, friend of French Kings, this Renaissance building became the centre of 17th-century intellectual and artistic life.

La Roche sur Yon

Fontenay’s loss was La Roche sur Yon’s gain. In 1804, Napoleon chose the town as the department’s capital. Largely destroyed during the Vendée Wars (though there is one 16^th-century Renaissance house left), it was renamed Napoléonville and a new population was shipped in to kick start the new capital.

The town was rebuilt in a pentagon shape around the main Place Napoléon. It’s quite a change from the normal French main square. The huge space has four natural pools where animals made of wood and steel poke out from the water.

Luçon

The attractive town of Luçon is dominated by its cathedral and its 85-metre high spire. It’s thanks to Luçon’s most illustrious resident, Bishop Armand Jean du Plessis, appointed in 1607. He was part of the Richelieu family and as Cardinal Richelieu, became one of the most powerful men in France as State Adviser to Louis XIII.

He may not have liked his bishopric, but he transformed the town, rebuilding churches, the cathedral and his palace. He also founded a college and hospital. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the town was rebuilt in pseudo-medieval style and it’s those streets that are the most attractive.

Richelieu also ensured the rise of absolute monarchy after the remaining Hugenot rebels against the catholic church and the king were defeated at the siege of La Rochelle in 1628.

Inland Villages

The Vendée is full of charming little villages, many of them Petites Cités de Caractère (Small Cities of Character). The citation is given to small towns and villages with a remarkable architectural and landscape heritage. Never mind the qualifications, they are lovely places to visit.

Mallièvre is an old weaving village built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Sèvre Nantaise river.

Mouchamps has a church which stands on the site of the old medieval chapel of the castle; Vouvant on a bend in the river Mère has a church that dates back to the 11^th century, an old fortress and a tower built in 1242.

Nieul-sur-l’Autise has old abbey buildings and Romanesque cloisters which are the last remaining intact in Europe.

Renaissance houses and a 17^th-century covered market attract visitors to Foussais-Payré.

Gardens in the Vendée

The formidable keep of the old castle dominates Bazoges-en-Pareds. Furniture decorates the five floors of the keep, but the main attraction here is the superb view of the surrounding countryside, and more to the point, the medieval gardens spread out below you. Old species of roses, aromatic plants and herbs, medicinal plants, fruits and vegetables grow in strict ranks of beds.

For a complete contrast, visit the village of Thiré in the south of the Vendée. Le Bâtiment is an old 17^th-century manor house bought by William Christie. He’s the Franco-American conductor and baroque music specialist who founded the ensemble Les Arts Florissants and who has presented operas at Glyndebourne since 1996. His garden is extraordinary, inspired by the grand French and Italian gardens of the Renaissance. Each year, usually in June, there’s a stunning music festival.

A Little History of the Vendée War

Bear with me on this one; it will explain a lot of what you’ll see in the Vendée, particularly statues and monuments to people you won’t have heard of but who were the heroes.

The Vendée war was short lived but was particularly brutal as conflicts within a country tend to be.

In 1793 an uprising began, initially against taxes penalizing the rural community, becoming a more general protest supported by the catholic church. The Vendeans were fighting against the increasingly repressive Revolutionary government in Paris and mass conscription for a European war that seemed a million miles away from the Vendée.

Quick to act, the Revolutionary government sent 45,000 troops to the region. Reprisals were swift as the colonnes infernales (‘infernal columns’) of General Louis Marie Turreau massacred tens of thousands of Vendean civilians.

A scorched earth policy followed: crops were burnt, cattle killed and whole villages razed to the ground.

A treaty largely stopped the main uprising but intermittent fighting went on until 1799, and beyond.

In 1815 during Napoleon’s 100 days of freedom, Vendean loyalty to Louis XVIII presented Napoleon with a major problem and he was forced to send 10,000 troops to put the rebellion down.

Witness Vendée History

See the whole span of Vendée history at L’Historial de la Vendée. This modern museum covers the Vendée from prehistory through the Vendée war to the 20^th century.

L’Historial is located just outside Les Lucs-sur-Bourgogne, the village where 564 people were massacred in 1794 by the infernal columns. All their names are inscribed on plates in the Chapel of Petit Luc, just a few minutes away from the museum. It was built on the site of the church destroyed during the massacre.

A five-minute walk from L’Historial takes you to the small, modest memorial to the massacre. Hidden in the trees, it was inaugurated in 1993 by Alexandre Solzhenitsyn.

Live the Vendée War

A 20-minute drive from L’Historial brings you to Les Brouzils and the Refuge de Grasla. It shows how the population fleeing the war fared in the forest in the winter of 1794 (though you’ll need to understand French).

In July, there’s a re-enactment of that time, something the French are particularly good at. It takes place in the evenings over a weekend and is well worth seeing.

Where the Vendée War Ended

The Logis de la Chabotterie is both beautiful and important for the history of the Vendée. The Royalist leader, the splendidly named François-Athanase Charette de la Contrie Charette was arrested here in March 1796, bringing to an end the war. He was shot in Nantes six days later. A hero of the American War of Independence, he had returned to lead the Vendean army.

Step into the past in this fortified manor house where rooms look as if the owner has just stepped out for a few minutes. A table is laid for a meal; a draughts board is open for a game; a half-drunk glass of wine stands on a table beside an embroidered chair.  

Spectacle and Outdoor Theatre at Le Puy du Fou

Le Puy du Fou is not well known to foreign visitors, but it’s spectacular. This major theme park (with a difference) offers a swash-buckling interpretation of history; a chance to dream of living in the past when life was good. (We all know it was nasty, brutish and short but we have to let our dreams rip now and then.)

You wander around a medieval village, forts and châteaux. That’s just the start.

Daily shows take you from Le Signe du Triomphe in the Gallo-Roman Stadium, a replica of the Roman Coliseum, to a falconry show where the big birds of prey swoop down from the arms of the falconers above you on the ramparts. Or how about Viking boats on a lake? Or the jousting competition where you sit just feet from the knights as they charge at each other?

For a great piece of theatre centred around the Vendée war, book for Le Dernier Panache. It follows the fate of the leader, François-Athanase Charette de la Contrie Charette (see above).

The night time spectacle is particularly seductive. Les Noces de Feu (Nights of Fire) set to music, brings the underworld beneath the lake up to the surface. It’s really something, so get a special package and stay the night in the Park so you can see it.

Stay at Puy du Fou

Puy du Fou also has some of the best themed hotels in the world. Try the Roman Villa or stay militant in one of the Field of the Cloth of Gold pavilions. Choose a red and gold marquee for the English King Henry VIII or a blue and gold one for the French King François if you’re on the French side. The latest hotel is Le Grand Siècle, a reimagining of Louis XIV’s private château. It opened in the summer of 2020.

Into the Countryside

Le Marais Breton-Vendéen

The coastal marshland of Le Marais Breton-Vendéen stretches south from Saint Jean de Mont down the coastline to St Gilles Croix de Vie. Here you’ll see bourrines, the traditional marshlander’s houses made of straw and mud hunkering down under their thatched rooves, windmills and boatmen in flat-bottomed boats on the canals.

The small town of Challans, capital of the Marais Breton celebrates the past for four Thursdays in July in an old-time festival. They shut the town to traffic and your only means of transport is by horse and cart. Stalls fill the street selling traditional goods and local produce; there are forgotten games to play, folk dances and street theatre to watch. And this being France, it’s all done in costume.

Le Marais Poitevin

The Marais Poitevin is the second largest wetland area in France after the Camargue, and the fifth largest in Europe. It’s an extraordinary part of France, this marshy world covering 198,000 acres of rivers, networks of dykes controlling the slow moving waterways and roads and tracks beside them.

Migratory birds wheel in the sky above you; otters pop up from the waterways; dappled light filters through the trees; wild flowers grow in the green marshland. There are paths to cycle along and ruined churches to discover in the hidden marshes.

The most beautiful part is the Marais Mouillé or Wet Marsh. Known as the Green Venice, this is the place for a boat trip through the quiet waters but only in the summer. In winter it becomes a flood zone.

The Bay d’Aiguillon is an area of huge mudflats with salt meadows that are covered daily by the incoming tides. Bird lovers can climb the observatory towers to look out for the astonishing number of migratory birds (over 330 at the last count).

The beaches are long sweeps of sand backed by dunes, perfect for family holidays. Walk along the Veillon dune and the Pointe du Payré in Talmont Saint Hilaire. It starts in the green forest of Jard and finishes by the sea.

Shopping in the Vendée

Check out local markets for fresh produce and traditional crafts. This list is for 2019, but markets are so much a part of local life in France that they hardly change over the years.

Sallertaine is a small town on the coast in the Marais. Once an island cut off from the main coastline, today it’s a vibrant community of artisans.

L’Ile aux Artisans has a variety of craftspeople from leather workers to fashion designers, from woodworkers to glass blowers. On four Mondays in July/August, the boutiques remain open to 11pm, and the streets fill with musicians and performers.

And for sightseeing, Sallertaine boasts the oldest working windmill in France. The sails of Le Moulin de Rairé have been turning since 1555.

Food of the Vendée

You’re by the sea, so expect the freshest of seafood from monkfish to red mullet, bass to blue lobster and of course Atlantic oysters.

The white bean (Mogette de Vendée) makes an appearance in the countryside. Try it buttered and flavoured with garlic on toast for a snack, or used extensively with meat.

Noirmoutier potatoes are famous. They’re also the most expensive in the world. These ‘bonnottes’ are only grown on the island, getting their distinct taste from the seaweed used to fertilise the fields. Planted at Candlemas (Feb 2, 40 days after Christmas), the small potatoes are harvested in May.

Salt Production

Salt production is big in the Vendée. Once a dying art, today many young artisan makers have learnt the skill and are producing very good (but necessarily expensive) sea salt.

Join La Route du Sel from Sallertaine for a route that you can cycle, walk, or canoe along taking you through the countryside and past the salt works.

More about Food in France

And there’s much more…like

Sport in the Vendée

Two towns are known for their surfing: Les Sables d’Olonne and Longeville sur Mer. But if it’s water sports you’re after, the Vendée has it all from kitesurfing…

To sailing…

Or just playing on the beach

Then there’s cycling…You can cycle the 200 kms (124 miles) along the coast. It’s just one part of the Vélodyssée route from Brittany to the Spanish border (1200 kms/745 miles). And that in turn is part of the ambitious Eurovéloute 1 which takes you from Norway all the way to Portugal.

More about the whole Atlantic Coast

Departments of France
Regions of France

The post The Glorious Vendée Department on the French Atlantic Coast appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

The French Atlantic coast is magnificent, sweeping down the west side of France from Brittany to the Basque country and the Pyrenees on the Spanish border. It takes in the old regions of Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charente and Aquitaine.

To the east, the boundary of the French Atlantic coast is marked by the pretty departments of the Loir-et-Cher and the Indre-et-Loire, the glorious Limousin countryside, rich Périgord and Gascony; to the west, the expanse of the Atlantic ocean.

What does the French Atlantic Coast offer?

Just about everything.

This is the place for some of the best surfing in Europe; for miles of golden sandy beaches and dunes on the Côte d’Argent south of Bordeaux.

It has glorious islands from beautiful Noirmoutier to chic Ile de Ré and tiny Ile d’Aix with its Napoleonic history.  

Cities offer perfect short breaks from Nantes to Bordeaux. La Rochelle, Rochefort and Biarritz are all irresistible.

And for rolling countryside there’s the Marais Poitevin.

For cyclists there’s the Vélodyssée, the cycle route that covers over 745 miles (1,200 kms) from Brittany down the Atlantic coast to Spain. And every water sport under the sun is there for the taking.

Pays de la Loire

In the northerly Pays de la Loire, the departments of Loire-Atlantique and Vendée lie beside the French Atlantic coast.

Just off the coastline, its balmy climate has earned Ile de Noirmoutier the nickname of the Island of Mimosas.

Nantes is the capital of both the Pays de la Loire region and the Loire-Atlantique department. It’s a wonderful city known for the former castle of the Dukes of Brittany, its strange machines, its renovated industrial districts and its young population. It’s one of the great towns and cities along the whole Loire Valley.

The mighty Loire River is on the last part of its 630 mile/1,013 km journey here. Starting in the Auvergne, it eventually flows through Nantes and into the Atlantic at St-Nazaire.

The Vendée

The Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region, is known for 161 miles/250 kms of protected coastline and 87 miles/140 kms of beaches.

There are some spectacular islands to explore: just south west of Nantes, the Ile d’Yeu, the ‘Corsica of the Atlantic’, is one of France’s most important tuna fishing islands. The east side faces the French coast; the other, wild side is well worth exploring for its cliffs and small inlets looking out over the Atlantic.

Les Sables d’Olonne, once the most important cod fishing port in France, is now a yachting town.

It’s best known as the port where the famous Vendée Globe starts and finishes. The extremely tough round-the-world solo yachting race takes place every 4 years. The last one began in 2020 and finished in spring 2021.

On the borders of the Vendée, Deux-Sèvres and the Charente-Maritime departments, the marshy flatlands of the Marais Poitevin are quite extraordinary.  The area is ideal for walks on well-marked paths, through the Marais Mouillé or Wet Marsh.

The area is known as the La Venise Verte, or the Green Venice, its twisting little streams and canals, constructed by the ever ingenious Dutch in the 17^th century, snake through the forests, accessed by boats.

Just inland and between Cholet and La Roche-sur-Yon, the Puy du Fou, as Michelin says, is worth the detour. It’s my favorite historical theme park of any in the world with spectacular shows and great hotels that range from a Roman villa to the Field of the Cloth of Gold grand pavilions. It’s a must-see on any visit to the region.

More about the glorious Vendée.

Vendée Tourist Information

Poitou Charente/Charente Maritime

Sweeping further south, this is another region of seashore and sandy beaches. Now part of Nouvelle Aquitaine, and with an important history, it’s relatively undiscovered.

Island living

In the north the pretty island of Ile de Ré is the summer playground of chic Parisians. It’s a delightful island with fortifications in the capital, St-Martin, oyster and salt beds, a network, of paths to walk and cycle along. Markets to shop in, and remarkably good places to stay and eat.

Here is guest writer Fiona Quinn’s personal take on Ile de Ré.

Just off the coast between La Rochelle and Rochefort lies my favorite – Ile d’Aix. This tiny, traffic-free island was Napoleon’s last French residence, before the dastardly English played their final successful trick on him. They packed him off to Portsmouth then sent him on his way to Saint Helena where he ended his days.

Île d’Oléron is one of the bigger islands on the coast, joined to the mainland by a bridge. Eat oysters and visit La Citadelle, the waterfront fortress in Le Château d’Oléron. Walk through the pine forests and dunes and visit the small fishing ports.

If you haven’t heard of either of the islands, you might have heard of the TV Series Fort Boyard. It was filmed at the fort, half way between Ile d’Aix and Ile d’Oléron. Boat trips take you up close, but you can’t get onto the island (unless you’re a tv star).

French Atlantic Coast Cities

La Rochelle

Along the coast, the maritime city of La Rochelle, called the ‘White City’ from its pale limestone buildings reflected in the sea, was once one of the most important ports of France. Its Vieux Port (Old Harbour) is dominated by twin towers at the entrance dating back to the 14^th century. Strategically based along the French Atlantic coast, along with Rochefort, La Rochelle port was ideal for transatlantic sailings.

Today it’s a top vacation spot, surrounded by some great beaches, ideal for families. Don’t miss the Musée du Nouveau Monde (Museum of the New World), showing the close links between La Rochelle and North America.
La Rochelle Tourist Office

Rochefort

Just south of La Rochelle, Rochefort was another significant maritime center, with a huge Arsenal building war ships to defend France against their ancient and persistent enemy, the English.

It was from here that L’Hermione sailed. Built in 1780, the Marquis of Lafayette took command of the ship and sailed her across the Atlantic to help the Americans in the Revolutionary War against the English. A replica has now been built which sails to different parts of the world each year. It’s a wonderful sight to see her, flags flying, out at sea.

She lives in Rochefort and when not sailing you can visit her. Well worth it.
Rochefort Tourist Office

Aquitaine

Aquitaine runs south from Poitou-Charentes to north of the Pyrenees. 

Bordeaux

Bordeaux in the Gironde is the regional capital, the centre of the region’s famous wine industry, an important French city, and one of Europe’s foremost ports. A great trade center from Roman times, it’s best known for the famous Bordeaux wines and spirits.

This wonderful city has reinvented itself with top attractions, museums, great shopping, hotels and restaurants. Now just over 2 hours 30 minutes by TGV from Paris, it’s become a favorite short break destination.
Bordeaux Tourist Office

Gironde

The mighty Gironde river flows north of this beautiful department west of Bordeaux until it empties into the Atlantic. The Gironde estuary produces world-famous wines like Médoc, Haut- Médoc, Pauillac, Margeaux and St-Julien.

Arcachon Bay

South of the Gironde the Bay of Arcachon produces the finest oysters, earning its place as foremost in the regional food of France. The glorious coast line, an enormously long stretch of sandy beaches, is famous for its nudist and naturist resorts like Montalivet where the international naturist movement started, as well as its family beaches. 

Inland the immense pine forests of Les Landes stretch along the French Atlantic coast down to the Dune du Pilat, the highest sand dune in Europe.

The huge protected Parc Naturel Regional des Landes de Gascogne is an area of pine forest, wetland and coastline takes in the whole of Les Landes from Arcachon Bay. It’s a vast triangular plain, originally an inland sea that became covered in forest in the 19^th century.

The Pyrenees

So you come down to the southernmost region of the Atlantic coast, the Pyrenees and Basque country.

Many people flock here for the surfing, some of the best in the world. The coast is a mix of rocky inlets and long sloping sandy beaches bringing the surf of the Atlantic pounding onto the land.

Biarritz

Biarritz is the capital of the area, once the most glamorous city in France and for long the most famous, or infamous, city on the French Atlantic coast. It suffered in the 1960s when the fashionable abandoned the west coast for the Riviera. Its resurgence has made Biarritz a lively, cosmopolitan city with a famous Casino, great restaurants and interesting museums including the Musée de la Mer, one of the great aquarium collections of Europe.
Biarritz Tourist Office

St-Jean-de-Luz

And so to the southernmost part of this journey down the Atlantic coast. St-Jean-de-Luz is a charming town with a lovely old quarter. It’s the only natural harbor between Arcachon and Spain and a major port with whaling and cod-fishing fleets.

It’s in the heart of the Pays Basque, the region shared with Spain. You can’t miss the language of Euskera with most signs in the two languages.

St-Jean-de-Luz Tourist Office

And so we come to the end of the journey down the French Atlantic Coast. It’s one of my favorite parts of France with a beauty that sets it apart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Getting to the French Atlantic Coast

Brittany Ferries runs from Portsmouth to St Malo in Brittany. From here to Nantes it’s a 177 kms/109 mile drive taking around 2 hrs 30 mins. Check out the information on Ferries to France from the UK.

The post The French Atlantic Coast appeared first on Mary Anne's France.

Ile de Ré by guest writer Fiona Quinn

Why I love Ile de Ré

The small island of Ile de Ré on the French Atlantic coast, was on my wish list since I was at school. I read in my French textbook about one of the characters going there on holiday and that was it.

The island is in the Charente-Maritime department, part of Nouvelle Aquitaine. My mum moved to the département of Charente in 2004, then part of the Poitou-Charentes region and since then I’ve had the chance to visit and stay on the island numerous times.

Each time I visit, I discover a little something extra that makes me feel even more at home here.

Back when I was studying French at school, the island was more remote and only reached by ferry. Today it’s joined to the mainland at La Rochelle with a 2.9km toll bridge.

So who else loves Ile de Ré ?

Despite better access which helps attract a chic clientele of French politicians, film stars and well-heeled Parisians (some compare it to the Hamptons in Long Island), this isn’t a glitzy destination. It’s remained a peaceful island.

Dotted with tranquil villages and their quaint streets filled with pastel-shuttered homes, Ile de Ré sits in a rural landscape of big skies, salt marshes surrounded by dunes and sandy beaches, vineyards and pine forests deep with ferns.

Ile de Ré translates as the island of ferns. Once occupied by the Romans, the name is believed to come from the Latin word ratis meaning ferns.

There are 10 villages on the island to visit, each with a different character: Rivedoux-Plage, La Flotte, Sainte-Marie-de-Ré, Le Bois-Plage-en-Ré, La Couarde-sur-Mer, Ars-en-Ré, Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, Les Portes-en-Ré, Loix, and the main town of Saint-Martin-de-Ré.

Ile de Ré Tourist Office

How to get around

The picturesque French holiday spot encourages you to take a step away from the modern-day. Promoting the use of bikes, the island has created a 110-km network of cycle paths that crisscross this tiny (almost flat) landmass through open countryside and linking beaches to small towns.

Avoiding jumping on a bike in Ile de Ré is like never taking the tube in London – everyone’s doing it. The wide trails are suitable for the whole family who can pedal safely away from passing vehicles.

Almost every hotel, campsite and village has at least one place to hire bikes and helmets, with electric bikes, trailers for kids and dogs, and even tandems. Maps detailing all the routes are available everywhere, online or via the app.

Information on maps of cycling routes

From one end to the other, the island is 30km (19 miles) long and 5km (3 miles) wide. From Sablanceaux to Les Portes-en-Ré, the cycle route is 31.5km and takes an average cyclist a little more than 2 hours to ride.

Check out hiring a bicycle here

Don’t Miss

St-Martin-de-Ré

The former capital of the island is St-Martin-de-Ré, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, the French clientele looks effortlessly chic in their linen shorts or floaty dresses on their sun-tanned bodies. The slogan on many a tote bag reflects the vibe: “Be Chic, Be Frenchy, Be Ré.”

The small harbour is surrounded by stonewashed restaurants and the town has become a stopping-off point for people flying out of La Rochelle airport (only a 30-minute drive away).

The lively harbour front is busy lunchtimes and evenings in summer, but out of season, you’ll find it easy to get a table. It’s the perfect place to sit quietly listening to the tinkle of sailing boat masts in the breeze with no sounds of passing traffic. Pedestrians walk or push their bikes through the streets, while drivers have to leave their vehicles at designated car parks, most of which are free for the first half-hour.

Locals like to start their meal with an aperitif of the Cognac-based Pineau des Charentes, followed by fresh oysters in season, moules marinèieres (mussels) or galettes (savoury buckwheat pancakes). For dessert, colourful La Martinière sells its own locally produced ice cream and has more than 60 flavours to choose from including salted caramel, mint choc chip and even Smurf.

Away from the harbour

Step away slightly from the harbourside, however, into one of the cobblestone back alleys, and you’ll get a chance to take photos of the renowned pastel-shuttered cottages and honeysuckle-lined lanes.

One tradition you can see in St-Martin is “Les ânes en culotte” or donkeys in pyjamas.

Donkeys were used throughout the island on farms and to carry salt from the marshes, which were notorious for the flies and mosquitoes that love the hairy animal’s juicy flesh.

The donkeys you see here wear striped cloth breeches to protect their legs and promote healing. Said to date from around 1860, the tradition started when a local woman used her husband’s shirt to dress the donkey’s wounds.

Today, children can take a short stroll on a donkey’s back around the Parc de la Barbette at the end of St-Martin harbour (from April to November weekends and holidays).

Ars-en-Ré church

At the far end of the island, the black-and-white steeple of the 15th-century Saint-Étienne church in the village square of Ars-en-Ré pierces a cloudless sky. It was used as a landmark for passing sailors.

Nowadays, visitors climb the belltower to make the most of the far-reaching views from the village across the saltmarshes.

The village is listed as one of the most beautiful in France and has a covered food market next to outdoor stalls selling clothing and trinkets.

La Flotte

Also on the list as one of the most beautiful villages in France, La Flotte is a miniature version of St-Martin.

With a few restaurants dotted around its small harbour, and a smattering of upmarket souvenirs, home decor and clothing shops, the village is most known for its medieval market selling locally grown fruit and veg from the cobblestoned courtyard.

Le Phare des Baleines lighthouse

The Victorian lighthouse sits on a windy outcrop on the far western end of the island overlooking its older sibling, the 17th-century Tour Vauban. At 57-m high, the energetic can climb to the top and overlook the nearby Plage des Conches and out across the Atlantic.

What to buy on Ile de Ré

I love shopping for unique items when I travel. Ile de Ré is famous for its local produce. The island’s fertile land and abundant sea mean that souvenirs from the island are plentiful.

One of its most renowned products, sea salt, is farmed here in the traditional way. Around 75 producers harvest the salt in the marshes using age-old techniques. The two types found here are gros sel (coarse salt) used in salt mills and cooking, and fleur de sel, a fine, slightly wet salt harvested by hand. It’s then added to caramel to produce vast quantities of salted caramel.

From the sea, oysters grown on the flatbeds are a local delicacy in season, while succulent mussels and sea urchins are also regional specialities.

On land, Ile de Ré has its own Cognac and the local aperitif, Pineau des Charentes, which come from grapes grown in the local vineyards.

Fruit and veg grown here include fresh strawberries, Ile de Ré new potatoes (similar to Jersey new potatoes and picked mid April), as well as asparagus, broad beans, cherries, tomatoes and peaches.

Fragrant smells in the shops and markets come from the scented soap made from donkey’s milk (lait d’ânesse). The highly prized milk calms the skin with its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory compounds.

Markets throughout the island are open every day in season, and each village has a market. The largest market at Le Bois-Plage has a huge fish market, and plenty of stalls selling clothes, souvenirs and trinkets.

Where to Stay on Ile de Ré

There’s a good choice of where to stay on the island. For accommodation on Ile de Ré click here.

How to get to Ile de Ré

By plane

There are numerous flights from UK airports to La Rochelle.

Once you arrive at the airport, you can either take the bus (see By bus below) or hire a car to your destination. The car hire building is a bit of a trek from the terminal, but once in the car, it’s a short 10-minute drive to the arc-shaped toll bridge to Ile de Ré (see By car below).

By train

Trains to La Rochelle connect from Bordeaux or Poitiers where you can join the TGV to Paris or Bordeaux. From the station, you can take the bus.

By car

Dover to Ile de Ré by car takes around 8 hrs 30 mins non-stop. It’s 787 kms (489 miles) and the fastest route has autoroute tolls. You go via Rouen and Le Mans then take the bridge to the island.

By bus

A bus picks up from the station – connecting with the Paris train – and airport to Ile de Ré every half hour to an hour with stops in nearly every village. You can buy a ticket on the bus for 5 euros for the day or 11 euros for the week (prices as of 2019).

The 3E Express bus runs from the station with limited stops; the 3A and 3B stop at both the station and airport and stops throughout the island. It takes about 30 minutes to Rivedoux-Plage and 2 hours to Portes-en-Ré, at the end of the island. It also connects with smaller shuttle buses on the island.

More about the French Atlantic Coast

Explore the French Atlantic Coast

Visit the glorious Vendée department

Read about the dramatic 2020-2021 Vendée Globe race. The next one is in four years’ time – 2024!

About guest writer, Fiona Quinn

Fiona Quinn is a francophile travel writer and editor. She’s lived in France on and off during the past 30 years, including as a student in Paris, ski saisonnaire in Savoie and Haute Savoie, and a home-owner in sunflower-filled Charente. 
Check out her website.

The post Ile de Ré Island off the French Atlantic Coast appeared first on Mary Anne's France.