What a 5 day trip to the Vendee could look like...

As part of our "Get to know France" series Phil and his family headed to the Vendee coast, a real popular place with the French throughout the year, but also in summer. In the summer you will certainly hear many Dutch voices amongst the French, for those from the Netherlands the Vendee coast is relatively easy to get to compared to the south of France.

We actually headed to the Vendee in our motorhome, but you can enjoy many different places to stay from hotels with beach views, gites or chambres d`hotes, plus camping sites with direct access to the beach. We have put together a route you could follow and the places to see, it was easier in our motorhome to stop somewhere different each day, you equally could choose to do stopovers or just stay in one place.

There is a wonderfully simple way to discover the Atlantic coast of western France: ignore the quickest route.

Put away the idea that travelling is about getting from one place to another as efficiently as possible. Avoid the temptation of the main roads whenever you can. Instead, follow signs for plage, port, pointe, corniche and marais. Turn towards the sea whenever the opportunity presents itself. Stop when you see fishing boats tied against an old stone quay, when a market spills into a village square or when a narrow road disappears into pine forest with the promise of a beach somewhere beyond.

Because between La Tranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Nazaire lies one of France's great coastal journeys.

It is not particularly long. Indeed, if you were in a hurry, you could cover the distance in a few hours. But that would mean missing almost everything that makes this corner of France so special.

Over five leisurely days, this route follows the Atlantic northwards through two departments — Vendée and Loire-Atlantique — and through landscapes that have been shaped by the sea for centuries.

There are the immense sandy beaches of the southern Vendée, the forests around Jard-sur-Mer, the medieval fortress of Talmont, the fishing quarters of Les Sables-d'Olonne, the sardine port of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and the Belle Époque seaside traditions of Saint-Jean-de-Monts.

Then comes Noirmoutier, an island of salt marshes, oysters, potatoes, fishing villages and one of the most extraordinary roads in Europe — the Passage du Gois, which disappears beneath the sea twice every day.

Beyond Noirmoutier, the journey enters the old Pays de Retz, where salt once created fortunes, before following the Côte de Jade through Pornic, Préfailles and La Plaine-sur-Mer. Wooden fishing huts stand above the rocks, families still practise pêche à pied at low tide, and tiny beaches hide between rocky headlands.

Finally, the landscape opens onto the enormous Loire estuary. The elegant little fishing ports give way to cranes, docks and shipyards and the journey finishes in Saint-Nazaire, one of Europe's great maritime cities.

This is not simply a tour of seaside resorts.

It is a journey through the history of Atlantic France.

And five days is just about enough time to begin discovering it.

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DAY ONE

La Tranche-sur-Mer to Les Sables-d'Olonne

Wake early in La Tranche-sur-Mer and go to the beach before doing anything else.

There is something about the Vendée coast first thing in the morning that immediately changes the pace of a journey. The beaches are vast, the sky seems enormous and, outside the busiest weeks of summer, it is remarkably easy to find a stretch of sand almost to yourself.

La Tranche sits on the southern Vendée coast facing towards the Île de Ré. Its identity has always been closely connected with the Atlantic, although the modern resort that visitors know today grew largely from the development of seaside tourism.

Before that transformation, life here was far harder.

The landscape of the southern Vendée was historically one of dunes, marshes, fishing communities and small-scale agriculture. Wind-blown sand could move inland and threaten cultivated land, while the sea was both provider and danger.

The planting of maritime pine forests helped stabilise the dunes and created the landscape visitors now regard as quintessentially Vendéen: sand, pine trees and Atlantic Ocean.

Today La Tranche is particularly associated with sailing, surfing, windsurfing, paddleboarding and beach holidays. The winds that once made coastal life difficult have become part of its attraction.

Walk along the beach before breakfast and you may see tractors launching small fishing boats, early-morning swimmers entering the water and sailing schools preparing for the day.

Then find a boulangerie, buy something warm and flaky, order a coffee and begin the drive north.

But do not drive far.

Through the forest to Longeville-sur-Mer

The coastal road towards Longeville-sur-Mer introduces one of the recurring pleasures of this journey. For several kilometres the Atlantic may disappear completely behind forest and dunes. Then a small road marked plage suddenly appears. Take it.

The beaches around Longeville — including areas such as Les Conches — are among the places where you should abandon the itinerary for half an hour.

Walk through the pine trees, climb the final dune and suddenly the entire Atlantic appears in front of you.

These enormous beaches also illustrate how different this coastline is from the Mediterranean. There are tides here — substantial ones — and the appearance of the beach can alter dramatically within a few hours.

At low tide there can be hundreds of metres between the dunes and the water. At high tide the Atlantic pushes back towards the land.

Understanding the tide will become increasingly important as the journey continues north.

By Noirmoutier, it will determine whether a road exists at all.

Jard-sur-Mer – a quieter Vendée

Continue towards Jard-sur-Mer.

Jard is one of those places that rewards visitors who slow down.

The small harbour is an obvious place to begin. Walk along the waterfront, watch the pleasure boats and fishing boats moving through the port and then wander into the town.

But the real treasure lies slightly beyond it.

Head towards the Pointe du Payré.

The landscape here feels unexpectedly wild. Maritime forest gives way to cliffs and rocky shoreline, while below lies the Payré estuary, where saltwater, marshland and forest meet.

Leave the car and walk.

This is important.

A coastal driving tour should never become a holiday experienced entirely through a windscreen.

Follow one of the paths through the forest and the scent of pine begins mixing with salt carried inland from the Atlantic. Eventually the trees open and reveal the estuary.

It is one of the great landscapes of the southern Vendée.

The Payré also provides a reminder that this coastline has always been economically productive. Oyster farming, fishing, salt and agriculture have all depended upon the complicated relationship between fresh and salt water.

The coast was never simply beautiful.

People had to make a living from it.

Talmont-Saint-Hilaire – Richard the Lionheart's Vendée

From Jard, make the short diversion inland towards Talmont-Saint-Hilaire.

Suddenly the story changes.

The Atlantic temporarily disappears and medieval France takes its place.

Dominating the town is Castle Talmont, an impressive fortress whose history stretches back around a thousand years.

Talmont developed around an important stronghold established in the early eleventh century. Its strategic position made it significant in the struggles between powerful feudal families who controlled western France.

Its most famous association is with Richard the Lionheart.

Richard was not merely King of England. Through his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and the vast Angevin territories controlled by his family, his political world stretched across large areas of what is now western France.

The castle at Talmont formed part of that world.

Walking through the remains today gives the journey historical depth. This coastline that now appears relaxed and holiday-orientated was once a contested frontier of castles, powerful lords and competing kingdoms.

Take time to climb through the fortress and look across the surrounding countryside.

Then return to the sea.

Port Bourgenay and the approach to Les Sables

The road towards Les Sables-d'Olonne passes Port Bourgenay and more stretches of attractive coastline.

Stop for lunch somewhere along this section if you have not already eaten.

This is where the seafood theme of the journey can properly begin.

Mussels cooked with white wine, grilled fish, oysters, prawns and moules-frites appear repeatedly on menus along the coast.

But leave room for what is coming.

Because Les Sables-d'Olonne deserves an entire afternoon and evening.

Les Sables-d'Olonne – sailors, fishermen and ocean racers

The arrival into Les Sables feels different.

After the small communities and forests farther south, this is unmistakably a town built around the sea.

Its enormous curved Grande Plage provides the classic image: a broad sweep of sand backed by the Remblai promenade and buildings facing west towards the Atlantic.

But begin elsewhere.

Begin in La Chaume.

This is the old fishermen's quarter and arguably the place where the character of Les Sables is easiest to understand.

Walk its narrow streets and imagine generations of fishing families living here while their boats worked the Atlantic.

Across the channel lies the modern harbour and the town that grew increasingly fashionable with the expansion of seaside tourism.

During the nineteenth century, attitudes towards the coast changed dramatically throughout Europe.

The sea had traditionally been regarded primarily as a place of work and danger. Fishermen sailed from it, merchants crossed it and communities feared storms and shipwreck.

Then doctors and fashionable society began promoting sea air and sea bathing as beneficial to health.

The coast became somewhere people deliberately travelled to for pleasure.

Les Sables-d'Olonne benefited enormously.

Hotels, villas, cafés and promenades appeared. The beach became a place to be seen rather than merely somewhere boats were launched.

The modern resort was born.

Yet the working port survived alongside it.

That combination remains one of the town's strengths.

Walk from La Chaume towards the harbour and then around the seafront. Stop for a drink on the Remblai and watch the Atlantic.

If you have time for another strand of local history, Les Sables also contains reminders of the Second World War. The Hospital Blockhouse Museum occupies an authentic wartime bunker and explores the occupation and liberation of the area.

Today, however, another maritime story has made Les Sables famous around the world.

The Vendée Globe.

Every four years, sailors leave this port alone to race around the world without stopping and without assistance.

It is difficult to appreciate the enormity of the challenge until you stand beside the channel through which the boats depart.

Thousands of people crowd these quays when the race begins.

For the sailors, the next return to Les Sables may be months away after navigating the Southern Ocean, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn.

Spend your first night here.

Walk back to the harbour after dinner.

Tomorrow the journey continues towards another port whose maritime identity is based on something considerably smaller than an ocean-racing yacht.

The sardine.

DAY TWO

Les Sables-d'Olonne to Saint-Jean-de-Monts

Leave Les Sables slowly.

Follow the coast through Olonne, Brem-sur-Mer and Brétignolles-sur-Mer rather than immediately heading inland.

This is a day for small diversions.

Whenever you see a road leading towards the Atlantic, consider taking it.

Brétignolles and the wild coast

Brétignolles-sur-Mer has long beaches but also rocky stretches that make the coastline feel different from the endless sand farther south.

Walk beside the sea and look carefully at the rocks exposed by the falling tide.

This is where another Atlantic tradition becomes visible.

Pêche à pied — fishing on foot.

At low tide, people head onto beaches, mudflats and rocky foreshores searching for shellfish and crustaceans.

It is part leisure activity, part culinary tradition and part continuation of something coastal families have practised for generations.

The tide provides a temporary landscape.

Then takes it away again.

Continue north.

Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie – the town built around a little silver fish

You will probably smell the harbour before you properly see it.

Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is one of the essential stops of the journey.

The town visitors explore today was actually created only in 1967 when Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie, historically situated on opposite sides of the River Vie, were united.

Their identities had been distinct. The older Saint-Gilles side was associated more with merchants, landowners and tradespeople, while Croix-de-Vie developed particularly strongly around its fishing community.

Fishing transformed the area.

Sardine fishing became increasingly important along this Atlantic coast from the seventeenth century. New fishing techniques allowed considerably larger catches, but another development would prove equally important: preservation.

Once sardines could be preserved in oil and canned commercially, fishing became the foundation for an entire industrial economy.

By 1888, Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie had thirteen canneries.

Imagine what that meant.

Boats arriving with their catches. Fish being unloaded. Women working in canneries. Coopers, merchants, boat builders and suppliers all depending directly or indirectly upon the sardine.

The fish shaped the town.

And remarkably, it still does.

Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie remains one of France's important sardine ports, and its sardine became the first wild fish awarded Label Rouge status. The fishing tradition has also been recognised within France's inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

Walk the harbour.

Then follow part of the Chemin de la Sardine, which tells this history around the town.

And for lunch?

There really is only one sensible choice.

Sardines.

Freshly grilled sardines need very little ceremony. Add bread, perhaps some local wine and a view of the harbour.

This is the sort of lunch the journey is about.

Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez and the Corniche Vendéenne

After lunch, cross into Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez and seek out the Corniche Vendéenne.

For several kilometres the coastline becomes rocky, with little coves and viewpoints towards the Atlantic.

Park whenever somewhere looks interesting.

Walk.

Listen.

The Atlantic hitting rocks sounds very different from the Atlantic rolling onto sand.

Eventually the landscape softens again and you approach Saint-Jean-de-Monts.

Saint-Jean-de-Monts – where the beach seems endless

Saint-Jean is about space.

The beach appears almost absurdly wide at low tide.

Children cycle across hard sand. Kite surfers race along the water. Walkers become tiny figures against the enormous horizon.

Behind the beach are dunes and pine forest.

The town developed significantly with the rise of mass seaside tourism, particularly during the twentieth century. But it retains something older in the landscape around it — the relationship between dunes, forest, marshland and sea.

Stay here tonight.

Before dinner, walk onto the beach.

Do not rush back.

Atlantic sunsets are one of the recurring pleasures of the Vendée coast, because the sea lies directly to the west.

Watch the sun sink towards the horizon.

Tomorrow you are going to an island.

And if the tide agrees, you are going to drive there across the seabed.

DAY THREE

Saint-Jean-de-Monts to Noirmoutier

Drive north through Notre-Dame-de-Monts towards Beauvoir-sur-Mer.

Today the tide becomes part of the itinerary.

Your destination is the Île de Noirmoutier.

But first comes the Passage du Gois.

The road beneath the Atlantic

There are few roads quite like it.

The Gois runs for a little over four kilometres across the Bay of Bourgneuf.

At low tide it is a road.

At high tide it is the seabed.

Its existence is the result of currents depositing sand and silt, gradually creating a natural crossing. The Gois appeared on a map in 1701; the first recorded crossing came in 1766. Buoys were installed later in the eighteenth century and paving began in 1935.

Driving it is extraordinary.

But this is not an attraction where enthusiasm should override common sense.

Check the official tide information before attempting the crossing and obey local signage. The sea returns quickly.

When the road is exposed, people frequently stop around the bay for pêche à pied, collecting clams, cockles and oysters. Elevated refuge structures along the route are reminders that people have been caught by the incoming tide.

If your timing does not match the tide, use the bridge.

Noirmoutier is too good to miss because you wanted a particular photograph.

An island made from salt

Once on the island, slow down immediately.

Noirmoutier is not somewhere to race around ticking attractions off a list.

Much of its beauty is found between the recognised sights.

Narrow roads run beside salt marshes. Whitewashed houses with blue shutters appear behind stone walls. Bicycles seem almost as numerous as cars.

And everywhere there is evidence of salt.

For centuries, salt was enormously valuable.

Before modern refrigeration, preserving food was one of the great challenges of daily life. Salt made it possible to preserve fish and meat for long periods, meaning salt-producing regions could become wealthy and strategically important.

Noirmoutier was one of them.

The salt marshes are a human-created landscape based upon an extraordinarily clever manipulation of seawater.

Water moves through channels into progressively shallower basins. Sun and wind evaporate the water, increasing the concentration of salt until crystals form.

The salt workers — sauniers — manage the flow with knowledge passed through generations.

Gros sel forms lower in the basin.

The delicate fleur de sel forms at the surface under the right conditions and is carefully collected.

Stop at a salt producer if visits are available.

Buy a bag.

It is difficult to find a souvenir that represents the landscape more perfectly.

La Guérinière – understanding island life

At La Guérinière, the Museum of Traditions provides useful context for the lives of islanders and the occupations that shaped Noirmoutier.

Fishing, agriculture and salt production all developed in an environment where island communities had to understand weather, soil and tide.

Noirmoutier is also famous for its potatoes.

The light sandy soils, maritime climate and traditional cultivation methods produce early potatoes with an identity closely associated with the island.

The Bonnotte is the celebrity, but several varieties are grown.

Look for them at markets and restaurants.

Noirmoutier-en-l'Île – the historic heart

Continue towards Noirmoutier-en-l'Île.

The town deserves several hours.

At its centre stands Noirmoutier Castle, an imposing medieval fortress whose solid keep reflects the strategic importance of the island.

The island's position made it vulnerable and valuable. Control of Noirmoutier meant influence over maritime routes, salt production and access to the surrounding bay.

But after visiting the castle, simply wander.

Markets are especially enjoyable here.

Look for salt, seafood, oysters, local potatoes, brioche and fish.

Then find somewhere for lunch.

Bois de la Chaise – the elegant face of Noirmoutier

After lunch, drive towards the Bois de la Chaise.

The mood changes again.

Here maritime pines and evergreen oaks surround villas hidden among the trees.

During the nineteenth century, as sea bathing became fashionable, wealthy families began establishing holiday homes around this sheltered corner of Noirmoutier.

The result is one of the most beautiful seaside landscapes on the French Atlantic.

Walk down to Plage des Dames.

The beach cabins, wooden pier, villas and woodland create an image that seems almost designed for an old travel poster.

Spend time here.

Swim if the weather permits.

Then drive north towards L'Herbaudière.

This is the island's principal fishing harbour and provides another opportunity to see Noirmoutier as a working island rather than simply a holiday destination.

Stay on Noirmoutier tonight.

As evening arrives, drive back through the salt marshes.

The low sun reflects across the shallow water.

The landscape becomes gold, silver and pink.

It is one of the most beautiful evenings of the journey.

DAY FOUR

Noirmoutier to Pornic, Villeneuve-en-Retz and La Plaine-sur-Mer

Leave the island reluctantly.

Today's route follows the Baie de Bourgneuf into the historic Pays de Retz.

And once again, salt tells much of the story.

Bourgneuf and the white gold of the Atlantic

Travel towards Beauvoir-sur-Mer and then Bourgneuf-en-Retz, now part of Villeneuve-en-Retz.

At first glance, the surrounding marshland can appear empty.

Historically, it was anything but.

Salt turned the Bay of Bourgneuf into an important centre of European trade.

Before refrigeration, salt was a necessity rather than a condiment. Large quantities were required for preserving fish and meat, and merchants travelled considerable distances to obtain it.

Bourgneuf developed as an important salt port in what was historically known as the Baye de Bretagne. The history of today's Villeneuve-en-Retz remains closely connected with the sea, the bay and nearby Nantes.

For anyone particularly interested in the history of the area, the Musée du Pays de Retz in Bourgneuf is worth visiting. Its collections cover the territory from prehistory into the twentieth century and explore local traditions, salt production and the natural environment.

Then continue through Les Moutiers-en-Retz.

Watch the landscape carefully.

Channels, marshes and low fields reveal just how thoroughly generations have engineered this environment.

Pornic – the jewel of the Côte de Jade

Then suddenly comes Pornic.

Few towns on the route make such an immediate impression.

The harbour curves below the old town. Boats fill the water. Houses climb the slopes and the château appears to watch over everything.

Park the car.

Pornic should be explored on foot.

Walk around the harbour first, then climb into the streets above.

This region has been inhabited for thousands of years, something demonstrated by the megalithic monuments scattered around the Pays de Retz. Long before seaside tourism, communities were living, farming and trading here.

Later, Pornic's location near the salt-producing Bay of Bourgneuf and the Loire gave it maritime significance.

Eventually the fashion for seaside holidays transformed it again.

The arrival of visitors seeking sea bathing brought villas and holiday homes, but Pornic never entirely lost the atmosphere of an old port.

Have lunch beside the harbour.

Then continue north.

The Côte de Jade

From Pornic, the journey enters one of its prettiest sections.

The Côte de Jade stretches along a coastline very different from the huge sandy beaches of the Vendée.

Here the shore is intimate.

Rocky headlands separate little coves. Paths follow the cliff tops. Traditional fishing structures project over the water.

Continue through Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer towards Préfailles and La Plaine-sur-Mer.

Stop repeatedly.

That is the point of this afternoon.

La Plaine-sur-Mer and the carrelets

Around La Plaine-sur-Mer you begin seeing one of the characteristic sights of the Loire-Atlantique coast.

The pêcherie.

A wooden hut stands on stilts above the sea, connected to land by a narrow wooden walkway.

From it hangs a huge square fishing net — the carrelet.

The principle is beautifully simple.

The net is lowered into the water.

You wait.

Then it is raised.

Whatever the sea has brought becomes the catch.

This is fishing dictated by patience rather than pursuit.

The structures have become visual symbols of the Côte de Jade.

Walk around Port Giraud or La Govogne and you can see how these traditions continue to define the landscape.

At low tide, look down.

People may be practising pêche à pied, searching among rocks and pools for shellfish.

Stay around La Plaine, Préfailles or Pornic tonight.

Order seafood.

You have one day left.

And tomorrow the small-scale maritime world of fishing huts and oyster beds is about to collide with something enormous.

DAY FIVE

La Plaine-sur-Mer to Saint-Nazaire

Begin at Pointe Saint-Gildas.

Walk to the edge of the headland.

Ahead lies the Loire estuary.

For four days, the Atlantic has dominated the journey.

Now one of France's great rivers enters the story.

Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef and Saint-Brevin

Follow the coast through Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef and towards Saint-Brevin-les-Pins.

The beaches broaden again.

But the horizon has changed.

Large ships may now appear offshore, waiting to enter or leave the Loire.

Industry begins to mix with nature.

At Mindin, stop before crossing the bridge.

From the shoreline you can see the enormous Saint-Nazaire bridge spanning the estuary.

Nearby, Huang Yong Ping's monumental Serpent d'Océan emerges from the tidal shore like the skeleton of some enormous prehistoric sea creature.

At high tide parts disappear.

At low tide the skeleton is revealed.

It is a perfect artwork for this coast because, like the Passage du Gois and the fishing grounds, the tide continually changes what you see.

Then get back into the car.

Cross the bridge.

Saint-Nazaire – where France builds giants

The contrast could hardly be greater.

Yesterday you were looking at wooden fishing huts.

Now enormous cranes rise above one of Europe's great shipbuilding centres.

Saint-Nazaire's modern identity was forged during the nineteenth century when the expansion of transatlantic travel transformed the Loire estuary.

Large ocean-going ships needed suitable port facilities, and Saint-Nazaire developed rapidly.

Shipbuilding followed.

Over subsequent generations, some of France's great passenger liners were constructed here.

This tradition continues through Chantiers de l'Atlantique, where enormous cruise ships and other sophisticated vessels are assembled.

Standing near the shipyard gives you an entirely different appreciation of the word ship.

These are floating cities.

But Saint-Nazaire's maritime story has a darker chapter.

War and the submarine base

During the Second World War, Nazi Germany recognised the strategic importance of Saint-Nazaire.

An enormous fortified submarine base was constructed to protect U-boats operating in the Atlantic.

The scale of the concrete structure is astonishing.

Allied bombing devastated much of Saint-Nazaire, but destroying the heavily fortified submarine pens was extraordinarily difficult.

The war therefore transformed the physical appearance of the city.

Unlike towns such as Pornic, where historic streets survived, much of Saint-Nazaire had to be rebuilt.

The submarine base remains.

But rather than demolish or ignore it, the city has incorporated the structure into its modern cultural identity.

Inside is Escal'Atlantic.

This is one of the best possible places to finish the entire road trip.

The attraction recreates the experience and history of the great transatlantic liners associated with Saint-Nazaire.

After five days following fishermen, sailors, salt workers and ports northwards, you suddenly encounter maritime history on its grandest scale.

Then visit Sous-marin Espadon.

Walking through the confined interior of a real submarine provides an extraordinary contrast with the luxury and scale of the great passenger liners.

For even more context, the Ecomusée de Saint Nazaire explores the wider history of the city and its relationship with shipbuilding, aviation, the port and the Loire estuary.

Finish beside the harbour.

Do not immediately drive away.

Find somewhere to sit.

Order a coffee.

Look towards the shipyards.

And think about where you started five days ago.

Five days, one ocean

The distance from La Tranche-sur-Mer to Saint-Nazaire is relatively modest.

Yet culturally and historically the journey feels enormous.

You began on a Vendée beach backed by dunes and pine trees.

You walked through forests around Jard-sur-Mer and looked across the Payré estuary.

You stood inside a medieval fortress at Talmont and followed the footsteps of a world in which Richard the Lionheart was as much a prince of western France as a king of England.

You entered La Chaume and discovered a Les Sables-d'Olonne built by fishermen before seaside tourism and ocean racing changed its fortunes.

You ate sardines in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, where a tiny silver fish supported boats, factories and generations of families.

You watched the sunset from the enormous beach at Saint-Jean-de-Monts.

Then you drove onto the seabed.

The Passage du Gois carried you across to Noirmoutier, where the rhythm of life is still written in tides.

There you saw salt marshes constructed through generations of accumulated knowledge.

You discovered how sun, wind and seawater can produce something once valuable enough to shape international trade.

You ate potatoes grown in sandy island soil and oysters cultivated in Atlantic water.

You walked beneath the trees of the Bois de la Chaise and onto Plage des Dames, where nineteenth-century holidaymakers helped invent the French seaside holiday.

Then you returned to the mainland and followed the old salt routes through Bourgneuf and the Pays de Retz.

At Pornic, you found another Atlantic France — elegant, historic and built around a beautiful harbour.

Along the Côte de Jade you encountered pêcheries and carrelet nets, reminders that sometimes fishing can consist simply of lowering a net into the Atlantic and having the patience to wait.

And finally you crossed the Loire.

Fishing boats became ocean liners.

Wooden huts became shipyards.

Small harbours became enormous docks.

And the journey ended in Saint-Nazaire.

That progression is what makes this route so compelling.

It is not simply five days of attractive beaches.

It is five days exploring the relationship between France and the Atlantic Ocean.

Eat the journey as well as drive it

Food should be part of the experience.

Do not make every meal a restaurant reservation planned weeks in advance.

Visit markets.

Stop at small producers.

Buy oysters.

Try locally landed fish.

Eat sardines in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie.

Look for Noirmoutier potatoes when you reach the island.

Buy fleur de sel directly from a saunier.

Order mussels along the Côte de Jade.

Buy bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit and have lunch overlooking the sea.

Food tastes different when you understand the landscape that produced it.

A plate of sardines means more after walking around the fishing port.

A pinch of Noirmoutier salt becomes more interesting after standing beside the œillets where it crystallises.

Oysters make more sense when you have spent the morning looking across the tidal bay where they grow.

Follow the markets

Markets are another reason not to hurry.

The French market remains one of the best introductions to a region.

Look beyond the obvious stalls and ask what is genuinely local.

Fish changes according to the catch.

Shellfish reflects the coast.

Vegetables reveal the season.

Cheeses tell you something about the countryside inland.

Markets also provide something that museums cannot.

They show traditions continuing rather than simply being remembered.

Watch the tide

The tide is the invisible guide accompanying you for the entire five days.

It changes beaches.

It exposes rocks.

It allows pêche à pied.

It fills harbours.

It drains marshes.

It dictates when fishermen work.

And at the Passage du Gois, it determines whether the road itself exists.

Check tide times each day, particularly if you intend to explore tidal areas or cross the Gois. The official Noirmoutier information explains the history and practical considerations for the passage.

Take the smaller road

Most importantly, do not become obsessed with the itinerary.

The itinerary is only the framework.

If you see a sign saying Plage – 2 km, follow it.

If you pass a village market, stop.

If you see fishing boats returning to harbour, park the car.

If a coastal path looks inviting, walk it.

If a café terrace overlooks the sea, sit down.

If somebody is selling oysters beside the road, investigate.

And if the weather changes, allow the journey to change with it.

Because the greatest pleasure of this road trip is not being able to say that you have travelled from La Tranche-sur-Mer to Saint-Nazaire.

It is everything that happened because you refused to take the quickest road.

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Your five-day Atlantic itinerary

Day One – approximately La Tranche-sur-Mer to Les Sables-d'Olonne

La Tranche-sur-Mer → Longeville-sur-Mer → Jard-sur-Mer → Pointe du Payré → Talmont-Saint-Hilaire → Port Bourgenay → Les Sables-d'Olonne → La Chaume.

Day Two – Les Sables-d'Olonne to Saint-Jean-de-Monts

Les Sables-d'Olonne → Brem-sur-Mer → Brétignolles-sur-Mer → Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie → Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez → Corniche Vendéenne → Saint-Jean-de-Monts.

Day Three – Saint-Jean-de-Monts and Noirmoutier

Saint-Jean-de-Monts → Notre-Dame-de-Monts → Beauvoir-sur-Mer → Passage du Gois, tide permitting → Barbâtre → La Guérinière → salt marshes → Noirmoutier-en-l'Île → Bois de la Chaise → Plage des Dames → L'Herbaudière.

Day Four – Noirmoutier to La Plaine-sur-Mer

Noirmoutier → Beauvoir-sur-Mer → Bourgneuf-en-Retz/Villeneuve-en-Retz → Les Moutiers-en-Retz → Pornic → Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer → Préfailles → Pointe Saint-Gildas → La Plaine-sur-Mer.

Day Five – La Plaine-sur-Mer to Saint-Nazaire

La Plaine-sur-Mer → Port Giraud/La Govogne → Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef → Saint-Brevin-les-Pins → Mindin → Saint-Nazaire Bridge → Saint-Nazaire → submarine base → Escal'Atlantic → Espadon → harbour and shipyards.

Five days.

Two departments.

One island.

Fishing ports, medieval castles, sardine boats, salt marshes, seaside resorts, tidal roads, oysters, beaches, forests, fishing huts, ocean liners and shipyards.

And through all of it, never very far away, the Atlantic.

That is the real destination.