Every
summer, British campers flock in large numbers to the beautiful
beaches along the Vendée coast in western France. After
Brittany, the Vendée is one of the most popular destinations
for campers visiting France, and with some of the best beaches,
not to mention more campsites than any other département
in France, it's easy to see why.
Camping-Caravaning
La Loubine
Notre-Dame-de-Monts
But it isn't just the endless sands
that people go for; there's also plenty to explore inland when
you tire of lying on the beach.
You'll find most of the campsites are located conveniently for
the main resorts, such as St Jean-de-Monts and its neighbour Notre-Dame-de-Monts,
St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and, most popular of all, Les Sables-d'Olonne.
My favourite resort, however, is St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie.
The resort, actually made up of
two towns, St Gilles-sur-Vie and the fishing port of Croix-de-Vie,
lies either side of the River Vie as it describes dramatic meanders
prior to reaching the ocean. It has the look and character of a
place that lives off the sea, with fishing boats moored in the river,
but it is also a town that knows how to enjoy itself, with the populace,
locals and visitors alike, promenading in the evening, gravitating
towards the funfairs, wandering among the arts and crafts stalls
by the church, dining at one of the quayside bistros, or simply
chilling out in a bar with a beer or glass of wine and maybe grooving
to some hot jazz. There's the Grande Plage, too, a fine sandy beach
where, if you prefer, you can spend the day topping up your tan.
There are a number of campsites nearby,
but one I particularly like is the four-star Camping Les Biches
at St Hilaire de Riez. It is located a little inland in a pine forest
off the D38 and is really well equipped, with swimming and paddling
pools, a flume, Jacuzzi, tennis courts and bike hire, a restaurant
and bar and evening entertainment, in addition to the more usual
facilities.
As well as for the resort itself,
I'm attracted to St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie because there's a lot to
see inland, much of it providing a vision of the area's rural past,
of how it looked before holidaymakers began to flood in to the area
in the late 19th century. Just up the road from Camping Les Biches
is the Bourrine du Bois Juquaud, an early 19th-century traditional
thatched farmhouse typical of the marshes that lie beyond the coastal
dunes. With only a couple of austere looking rooms and some outbuildings
for a handful of chickens, perhaps a cow or a goat, and primitive
farming implements, it must have been an arduous way to exist.
If you would rather find out how the
more upper class citizens of yore lived and spent their days in
the area, then head inland to the chateau at Apremont. Built on
a craggy spur in more undulating countryside above the pretty Vie
valley, the chateau has dominated the village since the 13th century,
though its magnificent pepperpot towers are more recent additions,
dating back to the Renaissance period. Down below, you can hire
a pedalo or canoe and paddle upstream past the chateau's high walls,
or for something more relaxing there's a dammed lake a little downstream
where those wanting to escape the busy coastal beaches come to swim
and sunbathe on the sandy beach.
Not far from Apremont, just to the
south, Coëx appears at first to be a rather unremarkable village,
but hidden away behind the church is the entrance to the Jardin
des Olfacties, a delightful retreat where you can take pleasure
in a restful dawdle through fragrant gardens, leafy groves and meadows
of wild flowers, which in their natural environment have been in
danger of dying out. If you're searching for a little tranquillity
away from the madding crowd, then this enchanting oasis shouldn't
be missed.
Camping
Pong
About five miles from the gardens
you'll find a campsite that sounds like it's a complete contrast
- Camping Pong at Landevieille, about three miles from the resort
of Bretignolles-sur-Mer. In fact, this is an excellent three-star
family site with a mixture of shaded pitches around a fishing lake
and more open pitches on terraces. Like Camping Les Biches, it is
well equipped and offers a number of activities including table-tennis,
or, as they say in France, ping-pong, which is how the site got
its name (nothing to do with smells!).
Returning to the coast, the resorts
of St Jean-de-Monts and Notre-Dame-de-Monts shamelessly tempt holidaymakers
in search of sun, sea, sandy beaches and sport, and if you need
a spot to pitch your tent you'll find plenty of campsites, too.
One nice little one is Camping La Forêt, with just 45 well
shaded touring pitches conveniently located between the two resorts.
Sand dunes and pine woods are both
features of the coast here, which stretches practically without
break for 15 miles or so from Fromentine in the north to Sion-sur-l'Océan
in the south. When the tide is out, you'll probably see sand-yachting
taking place, and perhaps even try it for yourself. If travelling
at speed so close to the ground is not quite your thing, there are
plenty of other activities to choose from, like tennis, golf, horse-riding
or cycling. In fact, hire a bike and you can escape the crowds and
cycle beyond the pines into the level landscape of the Breton-Vendéen
marshlands. Being flat, the cycling is nice and gentle (except when
you're heading into the wind) and you'll encounter very little traffic
on the minor roads. As a result cycling is a real pleasure!
Heading in the direction of Challans,
Sallertaine is an unusual little place, standing on a rare hillock
rising from the marshes. In medieval times it was an island, until
Benedictine monks drained the adjacent land. The village has a Romanesque
church, which is in a marked state of decay inside, but the play
of light through the windows somehow transforms it into a place
of strange beauty. Today, Sallertaine is celebrated for the assortment
of craft shops and studios dotted about the village.
Although you might find the breeze
a handicap if you're cycling, the Moulin de Rairé, near Sallertaine,
will without doubt find it a benefit. This windmill, built in the
16th century and still operating with the aid of white canvas sails,
is open to the public and has exhibits showing the evolution of
milling and the different techniques used over the years. You can
also buy flour and freshly baked bread. A few kilometres away at
Chateauneuf, a similar windmill, the Petit Moulin, is also open
for visits.
Other marsh-dwellers' homes can be
seen in the area, too, similar to the one near St Hilaire at Le
Bois Juquaud. The Bourrine à Rosalie is open to visitors,
and near La Barre-de-Monts, so too is the Écomusée
de Daviaud. This a living museum in a 19th-century farm, a centre
for finding out about the Breton-Vendéen Marsh, and is packed
with information about the local countryside and its wildlife. There's
also the opportunity to try your hand at piloting one of the traditional
punts used on the waterways, or leaping a stream with a long pole,
at one time a necessary tool for navigating across the watery landscape
on foot.
On the other hand, if you find all
this vaulting waterways, clambering up windmills and cycling across
marshlands, is all too much for you, you can take the whole area
in with a visit to the Salle Panoramique, near Notre-Dame-de-Monts.
A lift carries you to the top of this 230ft former water tower,
for far-reaching panoramas over the marshes and along the coast.
On the coast not far from here, Fromentine
is an unpretentious little resort in the shadow of the bridge that
links the mainland with the island of Noirmoutier. You can also
reach the more remote island of Yeu from here by way of a 45-minute
boat trip. North of Fromentine, close to the causeway that until
the bridge opened in 1971 was the only road link with Noirmoutier
(and then only at low-tide), Port du Bec is a curious place. Sheltering
on a creek and home to a large fleet of fishing boats, the port
is lined with a forest of timber piles and jetties reminiscent of
stilt villages in the Far East. Not surprisingly, its local nickname
is 'Port Chinois'.
Along the coast, to the south beyond
St Gilles, Les Sables-d'Olonne ranks considerably higher among France's
fishing ports than Port du Bec, but it is as a holiday resort that
it is most famous. If, that is, you don't take into account the
attention that homes in on the place every four years when the Vendée
Globe round-the-world single-handed yacht race, which begins and
ends here, is held. Most visitors, however, go to the town to dip
their toes in the Atlantic, stretch out on the sands, and maybe
use up some energy in a game of volleyball on the beach, while the
kids have much fun searching through the rock pools exposed at low
tide with their nets and buckets.
Camping
de la Dune des Sables
Once again, there are plenty of
campsites to choose from in the area, but two I can recommend
are Camping de la Dune des Sables, just north of Les Sables-d'Olonne
at La Paracou, and Camping-Caravaning La Loubine, on the D80 at
Olonne-sur-Mer. Both are four-star sites popular with families,
La Dune les Sables located among the sand dunes just behind the
beach, La Loubine about a mile from the sandy beach at Sauveterre,
and they both have excellent facilities including attractive pool
complexes. The one drawback with La Dune des Sables in hot, sunny
weather, however, is that there is no shade.
Les Sables itself is a modern resort
with a promenade backing the 3km long beach lined with hotels
and luxury apartment blocks as well as shops, cafés and
restaurants, so there's an instant escape route if you're in danger
of over-doing the suntan. If you feel like a flutter, there are
a couple of casinos, too, at opposite ends of the beach. And strike
lucky on the roulette wheel and I can recommend a good seafront
restaurant, La Villa Dilecta. It's a little on the expensive side
but the menu is superb, especially the seafood.
If the heat on the beach gets too
much, there are several museums worth a visit, and not just for
their cooling shade. They include the St Croix Abbey Museum, which
has some interesting local history and art collections, and the
Museum du Coquillage, near the fishing harbour, which has exceptional
displays of shells and coral from around the world. Out of town
a little, the Musée Automobile de Vendée, just before
Talmont-St Hilaire, has a private collection of 150 vintage cars,
plus cycles and motorcycles, some of which are quite rare.
When you've finished with antique
cars, you could continue to Talmont itself, where there's a 12th-century
castle looming over the central square. It was once the most important
fortress among Richard the Lionheart's possessions in western
France, and during the summer there are frequent son-et-lumière
events relating the story of this period in local history. And
if you want a deeper experience of what medieval life was like,
during the day there are numerous scenes enacted around various
parts of the castle, with markets, music and jousting. If you
wish, you can even dress up in period costume and really join
in the spirit of things.
Further
information
Camping
Les Biches
BP16, 85270 St Hilaire de Riez
Tel: 02 51 54 38 82
Fax: 02 51 54 30 74
Camping
Pong
Rue du Stade, 85220 Landevieille
Tel: 02 51 22 92 63
Fax: 02 51 22 99 25
Web Site
