Charente Maritime

Fashionable resorts, harbours and islands in the sea.

The landscape in Charente Maritime is generally - if truth be told - pretty boring. Perhaps that's why God or Napoleon gave it a long and ravishing coast. It was the sea that brought both war and trade - in whatever order - and created the major ports and resorts of la Rochelle, Rochefort and Royan.

Ports for aircraft.

More recently it has had the gift of a second coastline, in a sense, a highway to the world more efficient than ever the ocean itself might be. The N10 motorway speeds north and south to Spain and Paris and seeks out modern ports built for aircraft as well as ships. It carries trade, a new invasion of tourists and even conquistadors that seem to wish to gain the land with cheque books rather than with lances.