Île de Ré

Two coastal islands to savour.

You will find these same few sentences at the start of our notes about both the two 'Îles' off the Charente Maritime coast. That seems the only way to convey perhaps the most important observation about Ré and Oléron (see our Area Île de Oléron) being that they are different! Superficially - from a glance at a map - they seem almost mirror images. They are two long thin islands running on an axis from south east to north west. They are part of the greater geology of the west of France following strata that form the Gironde estuary to the south and another 'similar' island off the coast of Vendée - Île de Noirmoutier - to the north. But spend some time on each of the two currently under discussion and you will find a quite different atmosphere on each. If you like (or dislike) one you may well not feel the same emotion about the other. Both islands, incidentally, are joined to the mainland by road bridges. In the summer cars pay 15 Euros to travel to Ré (9 Euros in winter) but you get to Oléron for free.

Low tide at Rivedoux-Plage, its beach and bay.

Great maritime vistas, fields and forests.

That hefty toll seems not to have any effect on the thousands of motorists who flock here in high summer. They are seemingly programmed to urgently empty the racks above or behind their vehicles in order to become bicyclists demanding homage from those unfortunate people still in their cars and trying to avoid the two-wheeled hoards! But the congestion is only evident where the roads cross the 100km or so of dedicated cycle tracks. There are five marked routes which link Saint Martin de Ré, the principal town (and harbour), with every other corner of the island. En route the pathways pass great maritime vistas, fields and forest. Recent developments during and after the building of the bridge have added suburbs of red roofed and white walled bungalows to the villages on the island.

La Flotte is one of a number of small harbours on the island.

Good links and limits on new developments.

La Flotte and Ars-en-Ré are charming small ports that attract a wide clientele. On the south coast the resorts of Le Bois-Plage and La Couarde were established at a time when trains and boats were the only means of communicating between them and the mainland conurbations. Both still have superb beaches of fine sand which now, doubtless, attract visitors from a much wider social-economic background. Considerations of status or transport will however not feature at all among the most numerous of the island's guests. Two-legged and feathered they flock on their annual migration cycles to the marshes near the tip of the island and to the Lilleau des Niges Nature Reserve at Fier d'Ars. Modern human visitors and inhabitants try to emulate their ease of movement by making use of the La Rochelle airport (services to Stansted and Southampton). It's conveniently situated at the continental end of the viaduct which also connects directly with the motorway system. Add to that the fact that there is now a quota on the number of new dwellings that can be built each year and you may have good reasons for investing on this island.