ANGELA BIRD'S

 

INTRODUCTION TO THE VENDEE

Check this section out for:
Getting to the Vendée / Top 20 sights /
Routes from Channel ports / Driving around Nantes




 
This map (which I notice has a few inaccuracies!) is from the site
http://www.tourisme.fr/carte/carte-departement-vendee.htm
where you will find an interactive version with useful links to all the places shown.
(Note: Apremont and Soullans are not located on the Aizenay to Challans road, but to the south of it.)

 

 

 

THE VENDEE is a large département (or county) about the size of Devon or Cumbria (or, for American readers, somewhere between the size of Maine and West Virginia), located on the French Atlantic coast, just south of Brittany and Nantes, and north of La Rochelle. Its position, within 2 to 5 hours of the various western ferry ports, makes the area an easy day's journey from Britain and Ireland. The population, according to the 1999 census, is 540,000.

 

 

 

 

 

The name "Vendée" is taken from that of a river that runs through the south-east of the département. After crossing the forest of Mervent it flows through the town of Fontenay-le-Comte, which used to be the capital of Bas-Poitou - the county's name was changed to Vendée after the French Revolution of 1789 (see History page) - until Napoleon decided his soldiers could keep the Vendeans in order more easily from La Roche-sur-Yon. The river meanders on through the marshes to meet the Sevre Niortaise, and turns west to meet the sea in the bay known as the Anse de l'Aiguillon.

 

 

Though several beautiful tourism brochures for the département are produced, you do not seem to come across many of them in the UK. If you contact the departmental tourist bureau direct (tel: +33 (0)2 51 47 88 22; fax: (0)2 51 05 37 01) and ask for information you should receive some substantial brochures called something like "Horizons Vendée", or "Vendée Bleue, Vendée Verte" - they vary the title a bit from year to year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEATHER

 

 A microclimate, said to be similar to that of the Côte d'Azur, ensures that 2,500 hours of sunshine beam down on the Vendée's 140km of sandy beaches (see map, left - sorry you can't read the figures, but basically the darker, the hotter...). June is traditionally the driest month.
You can check out a chart of average temperatures and rainfall for the coastal resort of St-Jean-de-Monts by visiting the HolidayVendée website (click on Practical info, then on Weather).

 

 

Peak tourist activity is throughout July and August (especially 14 July to 15 August). Principal seaside resorts are St-Jean-de-Monts, St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Les Sables-d'Olonne and La Tranche-sur-Mer.
Inland, among the marshes, plains and wooded hills, visitors will find plenty to amuse them. Top-rated experiences for summer visitors (see "Top Twenty" list, below) are the breath-taking night-time son-et-lumière spectacle, known as the Cinéscénie, at Le Puy du Fou near Les Epesses, in the east of the département; and the fantastic day-time attraction on another part of the same site - a "historical theme park" called the Grand Parc (once you reach the Puy-du-Fou/Grand Parc introductory page with either of these links, you need to click on the word "English" to see the relevant parts of the site); a day on the tranquil waterways of the Marais Poitevin, or Venise Verte ("Green Venice"), a mysterious marshland in the south-east of the county; and a journey across the incredible causeway that links the island of Noirmoutier (north-west of the Vendée) to the mainland at low tide.

There are plenty of activities for all: water parks; castles; no fewer than five 18-hole golf courses; countless churches and abbeys; museums of every sort; prehistoric standing-stones; thousands of waymarked footpaths; a signposted cycleway running along the coast (several sections already open, others under construction); mudflats and marshes that attract unusual birds, from avocets to storks; fishing in sea, rivers and lakes; and wide, unpolluted skies for stargazers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A PERSONAL TOP TWENTY

Below - in vaguely anticlockwise order from the north-west - is my personal list of must-sees for holidaymakers (more detail on all these is given in the guidebook):

1. Port du Bec, near Beauvoir-sur-Mer
Once you find this little fishing harbour on the Bay of Bourgneuf (follow signs to l'Epoids) you can see at once why it has been nicknamed the "Port chinois" or "Chinese port". Taste local oysters at the "Mord'Eau" bar, or drive north on the road behind the dike and look at the new wind farm.

2. Le Passage du Gois, Noirmoutier
The 4km submerged roadway across the Bay of Bourgneuf, linking the island of Noirmoutier to the mainland near Beauvoir-sur-Mer never fails to evoke a frisson of fear in motorists.

3. Ile d'Yeu
On this 23 sq km island, an hour by boat off the north Vendée coast, time seems almost to have stood still. Rent a bike from one of the many hire shops along the quay in the main town of Port-Joinville

4. Sallertaine, near Challans
A delightful village, between mid-July and mid-August its shops burst into life with artists and craftspeople, exhibitions of local life are staged in the 12th-century church, and you can rent canoes to paddle along the surrounding canals.

5. Musée Milcendeau, near Soullans
This peaceful spot in the marshes south of Challans is dedicated to two famous men of Soullans - the writer and politician Jean Yole and his contemporary and friend, the landscape artist and portraitist Charles Milcendeau (1872-1919).

6. Apremont, near Aizenay
Picturesque village, clinging to the rocky sides of the Vie valley, with a crumbling Renaissance castle and a lake - the largest in the Vendée - with a sandy beach. Canoes or flat-bottomed boats available for hire below the dam for pleasant trips downstream.

7. Les Sables-d'Olonne
Even out of season there is plenty of activity in this resort, the smartest on the Vendée coast.

8. Jard-sur-Mer
Pretty village, 20km east of Les Sables-d'Olonne, with a picturesque harbour, lovely beaches, holiday homes set among fragrant pine woods, and some delightful walks along the clifftop and through forests.

9. Avrillé / Le Bernard, near Jard-sur-Mer
The area around these two villages is full of prehistoric stones (23 dolmens and 100 menhirs, it estimated).

10. Parc Floral de la Court d'Aron, St-Cyr-en-Talmondais
Between Luçon and Les Sables-d'Olonne lies a magnificent garden. Koi carp swim lazily in the ponds, and bamboos and banana palms rustle in the breeze. From late June till early August a vast lake is totally covered with thousands of exquisite pink-tinged lotus flowers.

11. Mareuil-sur-Lay, near Luçon
Attractive wine-producing town overlooking the river Lay, dominated by an austere Romanesque church and a gracefully dilapidated 16th-century castle. A signposted Route des Vins leads to some of the many vineyards on the outskirts.

12. Marais Poitevin, or "Green Venice", South Vendée
A magical misty wilderness of tree-lined, duckweed-covered canals, south of Fontenay-le- Comte and west of Niort.

13. Fontenay-le-Comte
Ancient streets lined with mellow stone houses indicate the former importance of Fontenay, which was once the capital of Bas-Poitou (as the Vendée was known until after the French Revolution).

14. Vouvant, near La Chataigneraie
This pretty place, 12km north of Fontenay-le-Comte, surrounded by medieval walls and looking down over the meandering river Mère, has been understandably labelled one of France's most beautiful villages.

15. Cinéscénie, Puy-du-Fou
Justifiably regarded as the greatest sound-and-light show in Europe, this glorious summer open-air entertainment at Le Puy-du-Fou, near Les Epesses, uses sophisticated special effects to tell the history of the Vendée. Late May to early September.

16. Grand Parcours, Puy-du-Fou
This "historical theme park" at Le Puy-du-Fou, makes a great day out for all the family. Performances throughout the day of falconry, jousting, magic and music, demonstrations of rural crafts and atmospheric reconstructions of a Norman fort, a medieval town and an 18th-century village. May to September.

17. Chateau de Barbe-Bleue, Tiffauges
The substantial ruined castle of "Barbe-bleu" (Bluebeard) towers over the little town. During the Hundred Years' War its owner, Gilles de Rais (or Retz), fought alongside Joan of Arc. Retiring to Tiffauges, he developed a passion for alchemy and, believing he could make gold from the blood of young children, seized and murdered more than 200 from the area.

18. Notre-Dame-de-Salette, near Chavagnes-en-Paillers
Built in 1889 by an inspired priest on a steeply-sloping site, this point of pilgrimage consists of crazily-castellated brick towers and walls teetering above a hillside garden full of colourful, almost life-sized statues.

19. Logis de la Chabotterie, St-Sulpice-le-Verdon
Elegant stone manor house and lovely garden, exquisitely restored and furnished to give an idea of late-18th-century life. If you click on various headings on the site, you can enjoy a “virtual visit”.

20. Chapel of le Petit-Luc, Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne
The most moving memorial to the late-18th-century Vendée Wars is this 19th-century chapel, built on the site of a massacre. On 24 February 1794 Republican troops slaughtered 563 women, children and old men in the village; the victims' names and - most affectingly - their ages are set in stone around the inside of the tiny church perched high above the Boulogne river. If you scroll down to the Memorial des Lucs, you can take “virtual visits” of the memorial and of the chapel.

 

HOW TO GET TO THE VENDÉE
(see also the Property owners’ pages)

 

BY SEA

 

"Brittany Ferries sails direct to Brittany, Normandy and Spain. As well as the highest standards of on board facilities we offer a great range of self-catering and hotel holidays with your car in France and Spain."

25-30% discounts for BF’s frequent-traveller or property-owners’ schemes.

BRITTANY FERRIES

Portsmouth-St Malo (9 hrs crossing time; approximately 3 hrs driving time in France);
Portsmouth-Caen (6 hrs / 4-5 hrs);
Plymouth-Roscoff (6 hrs / 5 hrs);
Poole-Cherbourg (4 hrs 15 mins / 5 hrs);
Cork-Roscoff (April-October) (17 hrs / 5 hrs).

LD LINES

Portsmouth-Le Havre (5.5-8 hours’ crossing time; approximately 5 hours driving time to Vendée)
Newhaven-Le Havre (5 hrs / 5 hrs)
Newhaven-Dieppe (4 hrs / 5 hrs)

THANKS TO VERNON FOR THIS INFORMATION

 

20-50% discounts for shareholders

P&O

Dover-Calais (75 minutes' crossing time; approximately 6/7 hours drive to Vendée)
Hull-Zeebrugge (12 hrs / 8 hrs)
P&O abandoned crossings on the routes to Western France (Normandy) in 2004.

 

Frequent Traveller Club, giving 20% discount on all travel between UK, Channel Islands and St-Malo

CONDOR

Poole-St Malo (4 hrs 30 mins crossing time by fast catamaran; approximately 3 hrs driving time in France);
UK reservations 0845 345 2000

IRISH FERRIES

Rosslare-Cherbourg (17 hrs crossing time; approximately 5 hrs driving time in France);
Rosslare-Roscoff (16 hrs / 5 hrs)

CELTIC LINK

Rosslare-Cherbourg (17 hrs crossing time; approximately 5 hrs driving time in France)

THANKS TO IVOR FOR THIS INFORMATION

 

 

Frequent Traveller Club, giving discount on all travel

SPEEDFERRIES

Dover-Boulogne (1 hr crossing time; approximately 6 hours' drive to the Vendée). New in 2004, this company is undercutting the traditional ferries by offering excellent-value crossings by fast catamaran from as little as £55 return.

 

SUPERFAST FERRIES

Rosyth-Zeebrugge (17 hours crossing time; approximately 8 hours'driving time in France)
New in 2002, the Superfast service links Scotland direct with Belgium, and thus cuts out a very long drive to the south of England ferry ports.

THANKS TO ROSEMARY FOR THIS INFORMATION

 

And if you prefer to take your car on the under-sea route instead, here is a link to Eurotunnel for the Folkestone-to-Coquelles shuttle service. (35 mins’ crossing time, 6/7 hours’ drive to the Vendée).  As you do not even have to get out of your car, this is an ideal route for those with difficulty walking, or for those travelling with pets in the vehicle.

 



BY PASSENGER TRAIN

 

Eurostar
London (St Pancras)-Lille Europe / Lille Europe-Nantes (total journey time 8 hrs); this is a very easy change (just swop platforms at Lille), and take the TGV to Nantes where you might either arrange to hire a car at the station, have somebody pick you up, or change for trains to more local Vendée destinations.
London (St Pancras)-Paris (Nord)/ Paris (Montparnasse)-Nantes (total journey time 8 hrs). TGVs from Paris (Montparnasse) will also, from December 2008, serve La Roche-sur-Yon and Les Sables-d'Olonne; connections from Nantes run to St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie.

ALEX JARDINE WRITES:
" Those living in or visiting the south-east of the Vendée might like to know of the excellent rail service from Niort (Deux-Sevres) to/from Paris Montparnasse, using the La Rochelle-to-Paris TGV. After leaving Fontenay-le-Comte at 05h30 on a bus to Niort, I can catch the TGV, then cross Paris and catch another from the Gare du Nord - in my case to Brussels, where I can arrive in time for lunch and six hours' work ! "

Here is a site on which to check out the French Railways (SNCF) timetables.

 

 

 



BY AIR

 



NANTES
Click here for a link to Nantes airport
 Ryanair offers flights year-round from London (Stansted), Dublin and Shannon, and summer flights from East Midlands (Nottingham).
NEW FOR 2008   Easyjet flies from London (Gatwick) to Nantes (starting 21 May).

Airport to city centre
The "navette" (airport shuttle bus) links Nantes airport with the city centre and with Nantes station "sortie sud" (it’s very important to know there are north and south exits
at Nantes station!). The stop in Nantes is opposite the Mercure hotel, on the south
side of the railway tracks.  Single fare 6 euros (2007).
However, it's important to check out the timetables of both shuttle-bus and trains, as the former can have a few gaps at certain times of day.  There are trains on the Nantes, La Roche sur Yon-Les Sables d’Olonne (or Luçon), and – slightly less frequently -  Nantes-Challans-St-Gilles.  This is the link to the "TANair" airport bus service
For the train times, if you go to http://www.sncf.com/, and then click on the "TER" box (local train services), you can then select region (Pays de la Loire) or departement (85 Vendee), date and rough timing required, and it should show you the train times.
Just in case your arrival flight is delayed, make sure that there are later train services than your ideal.  And as a back-up plan, maybe take the phone numbers of a few Nantes hotels with you just in case you get stranded!

LA ROCHELLE
Click here for a link to La Rochelle airport
Easyjet flies from La Rochelle to London (Gatwick) and Bristol.
Ryanair offers flights to London (Stansted) and to Dublin.
Flybe flies to Southampton, Birmingham and Manchester.
NEW FOR 2008  Jet2 will be flying La Rochelle to Edinburgh and La Rochelle to Leeds.


  TIP  You can sign up on the Ryanair site, so that you are alerted by email when there are special offers of very cheap – or even free – flights. These usually have to be booked within a couple of days, so you need to move fast…

FLYBE
FlyBe also operates flights to Bordeaux (not that far from the south Vendee) from Bristol, Southampton and Norwich.

BMI
BMI has started direct flights to Bordeaux (less than two hours’ drive from the South Vendée) from Manchester (daily April-Sept), and also slightly less frequently from Nottingham and Birmingham. Check here for timetables.

AER ARRAN
AerArran has started up some new routes to Nantes, from Manchester and from Cork.
There are also flights to Lorient, in southern Brittany, which could be handy for the north-west Vendée. These are from Cardiff, Cork, Waterford, Galway and Kerry.
THANKS TO MIKE WALTERS FOR THIS INFORMATION

Other air-travel possibilities
You can fly to Paris and pick up either an internal flight to Nantes, or a train - a TGV service operates from Roissy (near Charles de Gaulle airport) to Nantes. Other TGVs from Paris (Montparnasse) to Nantes, Niort, La Roche-sur-Yon and Les Sables-d'Olonne; normal trains run from Paris to St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie.
More details on flights to and from the area on my property-owners' page.

CAR HIRE
In the past, I have found the best deals by using the CarHire4Less website, which sifts through Hertz, Alamo, Budget, Europcar, Avis etc to find the best deal for your category. A correspondent mentions HolidayAutos as also offering excellent deals (it seems to be part of lastminute.com).  Another correspondent recommends http://www.carhire-online.co.uk/#Car hire company for "great service and excellent prices".

 

 



BY CAR

The road system is improving all the time. The A84 "Autoroute des Estuaires" (a toll-free dual carriageway, linking the north-western ports with the city of Rennes), is now complete.
From Caen there is no obstacle to prevent you zooming down to Rennes and Nantes.
Visitors arriving via Cherbourg can pick up an excellent dual carriageway down the eastern side of the Cherbourg peninsula, and then cut across country on an ordinary road via St-Lô and Villedieu-les-Poeles to join the A84.
The run from St-Malo is simplicity itself; just head south for Rennes and Nantes.
And the dual-carriageway that runs around the edge of Brittany makes the drive from Roscoff an easy one, too. The great bridges across the Loire, on the west side of Nantes and nearer the mouth of the river at St-Nazaire, are both toll-free.
Only if you arrive by ferry at Le Havre, in Normandy, will you need to have change (or a credit-card) available immediately for a toll as you cross the magnificent Pont de Normandie, and for tolls on the part of the motorway before Caen.
Or you might opt to use the new motorway south past Alençon and Le Mans to Angers, and then continue towards Cholet and La Roche-sur-Yon (capital of the Vendée). This is a toll road, but is said to shorten the journey by up to an hour.

  IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR DRIVERS
If travelling by car, you need the original of your vehicle's logbook plus, if the vehicle is not registered in your name, a letter from the owner authorising you to take it abroad. You must also have an insurance document (ideally a Green Card, since this looks pretty like a French insurance document, though many UK insurance companies no longer issue these, and instead print a sentence in French on the back of your normal insurance certificate to explain what the document is), and a valid UK driving licence.
These three items must be with you in the car at all times. It is an offence to be without them. The police can - and do - stop cars for spot checks, even where no offence has been committed.
It's also a good idea to have what the French call a "pièce d'identité" - something to prove who you are - on you when driving. As we don't have an identity card to carry, or anything else with a photograph, it's best to keep your passport on you, though your driving licence would probably be OK.

  RULES OF THE ROAD
The French are very concerned about their ghastly accident rate, so are applying the rules of the road extremely zealously these days. Here are a few things to be specially careful of...

The blood alcohol level for drivers in France is currently even lower than it is in the UK, so drinking and driving is out! If caught, you will have your licence removed on the spot.
Equally outlawed is using the mobile phone while driving - even with hands-free system.
Whenever you enter a town or village (i.e. you pass the name-board), the speed limit is 50kph - unless shown as an even lower speed such as 30 kph.
Driver and all passengers must wear seat belts at all times. Spot-checks are often made even in the most rural of villages.
Never cross a solid white line in the middle of the road! The French police can take your licence away on the spot - awkward if you do not have another driver in the car with you to take over...

And, finally, in August 2005 “Ian” writes:
“I recently returned from the Vendee with a ticket for 90 Euros for not coming to a complete halt at a Stop sign. Although completely my fault, it may be worth pointing this out to all our English friends planning to drive in France in general.”
So it’s worth mentioning that you are required to come to a halt – and to count to at least 3 – before moving off from a Stop sign.
 

*Useful links for motorists:
Automobile Association (AA)
Royal Automobile Club (RAC)
Information on French motorway tolls
Map information from Multimap
Route-planning through France

 


BY COACH

 

Coach travel from London's Victoria Coach Station is provided by Eurolines , though considering how long it takes (overnight, via Dover) it is surprisingly expensive.
There are no destinations actually in the Vendée; the nearest are Nantes, Niort and La Rochelle.

Once in the Vendée, you are not too well served for public transport. Click here to see the Sovetours bus services within the département (click on “carte du réseau” to see routes, and then on individual route numbers to see the timetables.  The main Sovetours page now has links to different bus routes, so you can see the timetables (click on one of the numbers at the bottom, to go to one of those routes; once you have one up, and you look at La Roche sur Yon, you will see links to dozens more routes).  Note that quite large sections of the timetables run in school term-times only.

 

 

map of Nantes area
AND NOW HERE'S A BIG SECRET FOR DRIVERS:

HOW TO GET AROUND NANTES !


Confused? You won't be...
This image is from one of the excellent IGN maps - red series No 107.

To see details of routes from the ferry ports, click here.