In the past, the sea reached the foot of Talmont Castle, the home of Richard the Lionheart.
Today, 6 kilometres away, this ancient medieval fortress (11th and 12th centuries) watches over the town of Talmont-Saint-Hilaire.
Here your ride along the coast begins to another Talmont at the mouth of the Gironde.
After possibly refueling, you drive to the vast marsh and salt marsh area belonging to the Parc South Vendée Atlantique. This area used to be sea, where several former islands protrude considerably above the landscape.

From La Tranche-sur-Mer to Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm, you will pass by the Lagune de la Casse de la Belle Henriette. You can also visit the former island of île de la Dive, for a breathtaking view of the Pointe de l'Aiguillon, the Bay of l'Aiguillon and the île-de-Ré.
From Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm you will drive through the drained marshland, with large nurseries and farms called “cabanes”. These paths along the coasts of the Vendée are absolutely worth it. The roads show breathtaking views and lead through very varied landscapes. A nice trip between dunes, rocks, forests and even marshes!

The Bay of l'Aiguillon consists of salt marshes (the so-called “mizottes”), mudflats and dunes. This makes it one of the most special natural areas in the South Vendée Atlantic region. Depending on the tides, the landscape changes over and over again: from a bay with mudflats or just a few salt marshes, to an almost completely flooded bay, surrounded by dunes created by man. The bay is therefore on the list of National Nature Reserves. It is one of the most important natural areas in France for migratory birds. In the water-rich nature reserve of the Marais Poitevin, the ground level even drops below sea level.

From afar you can see the high toll bridge to the peninsula of lle-de-Ré, with its chalk cliffs. The glorious times of salt mining are over and many salt marshes have been given a different purpose, in the north of the peninsula often as a bird sanctuary. It is worth taking a tour around the island.
The coffee is ready in the walled town of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, the capital of the island of Ile-de-Ré. With its special fortifications by Vauban, it is even on the World Heritage List. The town is a lively community in the summer, where many tourists come. The terraces around the harbour are pleasantly busy in the summer months. In the harbour, the pleasure boats lie next to the fishing boats and tourists take a stroll on the promenade.

The village of La Flotte-en-Ré has a pleasant marina where a small part is used by fishermen. The white houses are built around the harbour and give the village a unique character. Where yachts are now moored, there used to be a busy trading port. Fish, wine and salt were shipped here. Salt is still extracted on the island by evaporating seawater in basins. Like the rest of the island, which is about half the size of Texel, the tourist industry is one of the major employers.
In addition to the harbour, La Flotte has other sights. Just outside the village is the ruin of a Cistercian monastery that has a bit of the atmosphere of the monastery ruins in England. The abbey was founded in the twelfth century where it grew slowly but surely. During the Hundred Years' War, the monastery was destroyed twice and rebuilt twice. In the sixteenth century, however, it was over for good. During the religious wars, the Huguenots demolished the Cistercian site after which the monks never returned.
The ruins provided the building blocks for another attraction of La Flotte. The Fort De la Prée was built at the beginning of the seventeenth century with the stones of the monastery. The castle was defended by four hundred men and has a small harbour. When it was delivered, there were still some things wrong with the building, a problem of all times. For example, no account had been taken of the drinking water for the men, which meant that adjustments had to be made quickly.

Back over the bridge. You drive around the city of La Rochelle to visit it from the south side. The atmosphere around the old port of the city of La Rochelle has always attracted artists. La Rochelle originated from an 11th century fortress. Under English rule, the city grew into an important trading post. Salt and wine were the main export products at that time. Genoese ships supplied this part of Europe with merchandise from the Mediterranean. At the old port you will find the tower of St. Nicholas. It has been resting on its wooden pillars for six centuries. From the 15th century, colonists left La Rochelle for Canada. A century later, fishermen from La Rochelle sailed to Newfoundland.
That the 17th century city was also rich is evident from the city hall, which has a beautiful gallery around the inner courtyard. There are plenty of opportunities to have lunch in the city.

After lunch, take the road to the other port city of Rochefort. The inhabitants of Rochefort, a city founded in the 17th century, also sought the horizon. The most famous is Pierre Loti. He loved exotic worlds and travelled as a naval officer across almost all the oceans. He wrote numerous novels about it. His house has been converted into a museum and contains an Arab room and a mosque.
Rochefort actually came into being because the French coast had no significant fortifications between Lorient (Brittany) and the Spanish border in the 17th century. The statesman Colbert therefore decided to build a fort on the Charente River. Vauban designed the fortifications and seven years later Rochefort could call itself as strong as larger coastal centres such as Toulon and Brest.
Due to its less favourable location, Rochefort could not prove itself as a seaport in the following centuries, especially because the ships had more and more draught. The maritime history of the city is told in the museum of history and art and in the Corderie Royale (rope-making). In the harbour lies (the replica of) the frigate Hermione in better times. Very special is the still functioning old transporter bridge over the Charente; now a cycle and footbridge. Here is a nice place for coffee or a drink.

You continue the route along the coast. Here too it is a marshy affair, in which a hidden fortress lies. Unlike most fortified towns, Brouage did not originate within the walls but they were built around them later. The village was founded in 1555 but was not walled until the seventeenth century.
The fortress of Brouage was mainly a storage place for weapons but could also accommodate a garrison of six thousand men. This made the fortress virtually impregnable, especially considering the marshes that had formed around the village in the seventeenth century. A century earlier, Brouage was still a port with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, but due to silting up, the various islands off the coast had grown together. The marshes that had formed in this process formed a natural ally for the defenders.
The citadel itself comprises a square of four hundred by four hundred metres. The ramparts are not very high but with seven bastions reinforced with small towers they do their job excellently. A walk around Brouage on the walls is therefore a must where at important points there are signs explaining what happened there.
The ramparts gave the village gates and these are still the only access roads. Inside the ramparts, the church with its wooden roof is interesting and there are exhibitions in the dining room of the barracks. There are also nice little shops and attractive restaurants where you can eat oysters.

You will pass the famous oyster village of Marenne, but there will be another opportunity in Mornac-sur-Seudre. This is an old salt village enriched with oysters. The village is located ten kilometers from the French west coast between Rochefort and Royan. Yet the sea is never far away here because the village is located in a salt marsh area with a direct connection to the open water where salt has been extracted for centuries. Oysters are now cultivated here en masse and lovers of this fruit-du-mer can indulge themselves here. The village has wonderfully narrow streets where you can walk and stroll in the summer. Eating is also fine because there are enough restaurants and other places. The church is certainly interesting. It stands on foundations made by Merovingians, an early medieval people who ruled France, and also has very old frescoes from the eleventh century. So go inside!

The last stop is approaching. As the name suggests, Talmont-sur-Gironde is located along the Gironde but the river is so wide here that there is little difference with the Atlantic Ocean. The village is built on a rock which makes it easy to defend, especially since it also had a defensive wall. In the Middle Ages, Talmont controlled the access to the Gironde and therefore to Bordeaux.
There is not much left of this wall but it is still almost completely intact around the church. Because the church is on a kind of peninsula this provides an extremely beautiful picture. The village itself consists of white houses with blue shutters, a very photogenic combination. The streets are perpendicular to each other and are reminiscent of a Roman army camp but that is not the case. Two kilometers further on there are excavations from the time of the Roman Empire, but not here. Finally, the village has a small but beautiful fishing port where sturgeon used to be landed. Nowadays glass eel and lamprey are fished and you can undoubtedly eat them well in one of the restaurants in the village.