From Waves to Trails: Discover Vendée’s Great Outdoors

Looking for an active holiday in France? Just a short hop across the Channel is Vendée, a region famous for sailing, but also rich in other water sports, cycling, hiking and loads of family-friendly outdoor activities…

The Côte de Lumière, as Vendée’s coastline is known, is aptly named. With an average of 2,500 hours of sunshine every year, this gorgeous department, halfway up France’s western coast, boasts 250km of coastline, including 140km of sandy beaches, plus endless dunes and pine forests and two of western France’s most intriguing islands -l’Île de Noirmoutier and l’Île d’Yeu. All that wide open space and coastline make it perfect for the ultimate active family holiday.

Water and beach sports in Vendée

Even those who have never set foot in a sailing boat will have heard of the Vendée Globe. Staged once every four years, this solo, non-stop, round-the-world sailing race starts and finishes in the Vendée town of Les Sables-d’Olonne. While the Vendée Globe is considered the toughest sailing race of all, there are plenty of far more gentle water sports on offer. And the 18 seaside resorts in the department offer something aimed at all levels, from beginner to expert.

At Plage du Veillon, just south of Les Sables-d’Olonne, Paddle Aventure rents out canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddle-boards (www.paddleaventure.fr). The estuary here is calm and sheltered, perfect for beginners. One of their newest activities is an Australian import called waveski-surfing which involves sitting on an inflatable surfboard and using a double-ended paddle to catch the waves and glide towards shore – just like traditional surfing but much easier. It’s also available in Les Sables-d’Olonne through Octopus Glisse (octopusglisse.com). If you’d rather keep dry, then what about sand yachting? For this sport, popular on the wide, flat beaches near Saint-Jean-de-Monts, you sit in a little sail-powered buggy solo or duo, depending on your confidence and steer as you zip along the sand. The highest recorded speed in this sport is over 140mph. It’s highly recommended you keep things a bit slower, though. This is available at La Base Nautique in Saint-Jean-de-Monts (www.labasenautique.fr).

There are paddling sports on Vendée’s inland waterways, too. At La Chaize-Giraud, just south of Saint-Gilles, and at Apremont, south of Challans, Canoë Vendée (www.canoevendee.fr) offers canoeing and kayaking on the local rivers, with boats accommodating one to three paddlers.

The Lac du Graon is a great spot. In Saint-Vincent-sur-Graon, Détours Vagabonds (www.detours-vagabonds.fr) will lead you on a canoe trip across the lake and help you set up camp on the shore, where you’ll enjoy dinner round the campfire before sleeping the night in a hammock. The following morning, you paddle your way back to your starting point. La Route du Sel is another operator offering paddling adventures (www.laroutedusel.com), this time in the Marais Breton, a marshy region in the north of Vendée.

“Accompanied by a guide, discover the marsh in a completely different way,” they say. “See its ancient shores, its birdlife, its open and silent landscapes. This is a gentle and immersive way to explore this territory shaped by man and nature.” There are different trips available, ranging from a gentle sunrise paddle or an evening picnic, to an overnight camping adventure or a nighttime paddle trip with a candlelit dinner.

Or what about wingfoiling? This sport is similar to windsurfing except that a foil beneath the board allows you to rise above the water while you hold onto a separate wing. Vertime Wingfoil (vertimewingfoil.com) offers lessons for beginners on a saltwater lake called La Ch’noue, which is close to Les Sables-d’Olonne. With waters warmer than the ocean and always calm conditions, it’s the perfect place to become familiarised with this blossoming sport.

Cycling in Vendée

They call it the Vélodyssée. It’s a 1,300km cycling route, mainly on traffic-free paths, that stretches all the way down the west coast of France, from the Brittany coast to the border with Spain. One of its prettiest sections is where it hugs the shoreline of Vendée, between La Barre-de-Monts, at the base of the Île de Noirmoutier, down to the Baie de l’Aiguillon.

At 140km, only a truly athletic biker would attempt to ride it in one day. But with plenty of towns dotted along the route, it’s easily broken up into smaller sections. And best of all, it’s very flat, on a combination of asphalt, gravel and stony paths. With a touring bike, an off-road bike, or ideally a gravel bike, you can pootle or zip along, just as you please.

Gravel biking a sort of middle ground between mountain biking and road biking is enormously popular in Vendée right now. There are longer gravel biking routes in the department, too. The Vendée Vélo Tour, for example, is a 700km circuit that starts and finishes in Les Sables-d’Olonne, following the same Vélodyssée route along the coast before heading inland via the Marais Poitevin marshes to the Bocage Vendéen. After that, it takes in a hilly section near the Sèvre Nantaise River before returning towards the ocean for a final foray onto the Île de Noirmoutier. Split into 20 manageable sections, it’s suitable for both intermediate and experienced cyclists. There are two other long-distance cycling routes that skirt the edge of the department: La Vélo Francette in the south and La Vélidéale in the northeast. One town that has capitalised on the popularity of gravel biking is Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, where there are three signposted biking routes at 50km, 60km and 100km. Taking in some of the region’s most beautiful sights, they cross through vast, sandy dunes, over marshy regions, and wiggle through pretty vineyards and villages before ending back in the sardine capital of Saint-Gilles.

For a guided biking experience, there’s an operator called Original Vélo Tour (www.originalvelotour.fr), which will take you through the Vendée section of the Marais Poitevin, a vast maze of streams, green pools, islets and hidden marshes, nicknamed La Venise Verte (Green Venice). It includes boat rides, local produce and tastings as you cycle along the paths, winding through the marshes.

Off-road scootering is also popular in Vendée, and local company Nomad Trott (www.nomad-trott.com) has come up with a novel way of seeing the Marais Poitevin. Using electric, stand-up scooters, suitable for off-road terrain, they will guide you on three different circuits of your choice. Two are suitable for beginners and one for more expert riders.

Donkey riding in Vendée

For those who prefer four legs to two wheels, one local company called Pieds d’Aventures (piedsdaventures.com) offers hiking with donkeys. “What a pleasure it is not to hear your children moaning, ‘when will we get there?”,” say the organisers. “The kids will have a new companion encouraging them to walk, or carrying them if they get too tired. But they will also love leading the donkey themselves.” On longer trips, adults will be happy too, as their new friend carries all the food and camping supplies. It’s the perfect way to discover the interior of Vendée while experiencing a completely new activity.

VENDEE ESSENTIALS

GETTING THERE

BY CAR/FERRY

The A87 and A83 autoroutes cross the region. The nearest ferry port with links to Vendée is Saint-Malo.

BY AIR

Nantes-Atlantique airport www.nantes.aeroport. fr serves London Gatwick, Birmingham and Bristol (with easyJet) and Edinburgh, London Stansted and Manchester (with Ryanair). La Rochelle-Île de Ré airport www.larochelle.aeroport.fr serves Bristol, London Gatwick and Manchester (with easyjet) and London Stansted (with Ryanair).

BY TRAIN

TGV trains run directly from Paris to La Roche-sur-Yon and Les Sables-d’Olonne.

TOURIST INFORMATION

www.in-vendee.com

From France Today Magazine

Lead photo credit : Wingfoil La Tranche sur Mer centre_nautique_tranchais