| Vendée and the West coast of France |
|
France's
Atlantic coast, from the Loire to the Landes
|
 Gites de France and cottages in Vendée,
Charentes, and western
France |
 Introduction à la Vendée en français |
Photos: © Gitelink France network except where otherwise stated.
Top of page: Les Sables d'Olonne.
Below: scenes along the west coast
Bottom: Photo licence GNU by Uli Kutting
The
west coast
of France
The west coast of France, south of Brittany, is a popular
tourist area. From the mouth of
the Loire as far as the Spanish border, France's Atlantic coastline
is characterised by long expanses of sandy beaches,
offshore fishing,
oyster beds, and a broad band of low-lying or flat land, some of it
marshy.The area known as "Vendée" lies south of the Loire estuary area, and covers almost half the coast between the Loire and the Gironde. Today, Vendée is a French department, capital la Roche sur Yon; but in the past the name covered a larger area. In several parts, notably around Saint Jean de Monts or Les Sables d'Olonne, the Vendée coastline is quite heavily built up with sea front development. Even so, in spite of the brash coastal development that took place in and around the 1970s, places like Les Sables d'Olonne have managed to conserve their old world charm, and behind the seafront apartment blocks, les Sables, Vendée's most popular resort, still has an old town, with its narrow streets and whitewashed walls. And in other parts of Vendée, away from the towns, there are long sections of unspoiled coastline.
Large parts of this area lie at or even marginally below high-water mark; and in early 2010, severe Atlantic storms coupled with very high tides, broke through the sea defences leaving fields and in some cases housing developments in over two metres of water. As a result of this, and of the threat of more to come due to global warming and rising sea levels, the French government has now forbidden all future development in at-risk zones , and some housing estates that have already been built, but heavily flooded, are to be demolished.
South of the historic Vendée area, in the Charente
maritime department, the ports of La Rochelle and Rochefort
are very attractive, as well as being popular with ocean
yachtsmen. La Rochelle boasts one of the best and most interesting
sea-water aquariums in Europe - showpiece of the La-Rochelle based
company that has designed and built many of the other big aquariums in
Europe. Rochefort, a famous naval port in the days of
sail, is famous for its former Royal ropeworks and maritime
museum. further to the south, on the Gironde esturary, the
town of Royan
is a genteel seaside resort that has been popular with holiday makers
for over a century.Inland from the coast, this whole area is very pleasant; part of the Deux-Sèvres department is often called the "green Venice", on account of its extensive network of drainage canals and waterways. This is a region where the pace of life is slow, like the water in the rivers that flow through it. Rowing boats can be hired in many places, and the river Charente is navigable for 170 kilometers from its mouth at Rochefort up to the town of Angloulême.
North west of Bordeaux
lies the Saintonge,
the
home of Cognac
and the aperitif wine "Pineau". This generally flat
agricultural
region is famous for its historic churches, many of which have
exquisite
mediaeval carvings. South west of the historic city of Bordeaux lie
"les Landes"
(meaning the heaths
in English) ,
the largest
continuously forested area in Western Europe - though the area was not
covered in forest until the nineteenth century. Near the popular resort
of Arcachon is the Dune du Pilat, the highest sand dune in Europe. And
of course, around
Bordeaux, in the heart of the Aquitaine
region,
lie miles and miles of famous vineyards, producing a wide range of
Bordeaux
wines
that include some of the best and most expensive in the world such as
Château Mouton Rothschild, Graves, Médoc and Sauternes..The climate on France's Atlantic coast is generally mild to warm; and although rain cannot be excluded even in summer, the clouds often pass over the coastal region, before breaking over the hills further inland.
