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HOT
Forests (Les Brouzils, La Barre-de-Monts, Olonne, Mervent, Aizenay), museums
(air-conditioned: La Chabotterie, Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne, Puy-du-Fou Ecomusée,
Milcendeau museum), churches, shopping malls (Les Flâneries, at La Roche-sur-Yon),
hypermarkets (everywhere), lakes (Apremont, Jaunay, Xanton-Chassenon, etc).
Take a canoe trip in the Marais Poitevin (Green Venice).
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CLOUDY
Port du Bec, near
Beauvoir; Le Grand Parc du Puy-du-Fou, at Les Epesses; CAIRN and dolmens,
generally, in Avrillé area; Le Daviaud agricultural museum, near
St-Jean-de-Monts; mini-golfs anywhere.
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RAINING
Museums, churches, shopping malls, hypermarkets, indoor swimming-pools, ice
rink. One tip: in summer the hypermarkets inland will be less crowded!
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AFTER THE RAIN
The best time to visit anywhere with water-filled features is, well, after
the water has arrived... Try the Iles Enchantées, near Chémeré, or the
marshes around Challans.
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WINDY WEATHER
Spectacular effects of water driven up into spray at the cliffs of Le Trou du
Diable, at St Hilaire-de-Riez, and Le Puits d'Enfer, near Les Sables. (But
watch you don’t stray too near the edge for safety…)
Kite-flying, or watching sand-yachting at Notre-Dame-de-Monts, or windsurfing
at Les Sables.
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BIG TIDES
"Spring" tides occur roughly once a month, bringing extra high (and
extra low) tides. Get hold of a tide table and look for the largest figures
in the "coefficients" column.
Low: Shellfish digging, Passage du Gois, Pont d'Yeu. (NB: restrictions on
digging still in force at many beaches in early 2000, in the wake of the Erika
oil spill)
Rising tide: watch thousands of wading birds at mudflats at Bourgneuf, Le
Collet, or on the Passage du Gois.
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COLD....
Make a good fire in the hearth (but supervise it at all times). Try and find
a restaurant with an open fire, and beg to be put next to it while you eat
your meal. Go for a hearty walk - indoors will feel almost warm when you've
come in from something even colder. Exclude draughts as much as possible, by
hanging bedspreads over ill-fitting dorways etc. Put on warm underwear -
T-shirt as vest, for instance; cosy, unglamorous leggings or tights, and a
woolly hat. Go to bed with hot-water bottle. As a last resort, drive around
in the car with the heating on. Never use a gas heater in a room where you
are going to sleep.
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