The Charente-Maritime is a diverse and historic part of France, with coastal areas popular with the French, some of the best seafood on the Atlantic coast, and a long royal history wrapping back hundreds of years.
Île de Ré
Île de Ré is a low-lying island off La Rochelle with salt marshes, vineyards, and long stretches of beaches and oyster farms. It’s strictly managed – no traffic lights, no neon signs, and buildings with traditional white walls and green shutters – and quite pretty.
The area has a reputation for being fancy, and in parts it is, but it’s extremely approachable and we really enjoyed it. Our choice of location, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, was perfect, with convenient swimming nearby at Plage de la Cible, a setting within the Vauban fortress, and lots of restaurants and shopping. It’s very flat and perfect for bike riding. It has elements of the Camargue and the Medoc Peninsula, and in my opinion is better than either.
We stayed at **Hotel de Toiras, which was quite lovely. It’s expensive, and I’d probably stay somewhere else nearby, but as a special treat it was great. Other appealing options: La Maison Douce, Le Secret, and Hôtel La Jetée.
Food in Saint-Martin-de-Ré
- **Le Serghi, which has a nice setting in the port, good reviews, tasty food, and very sub-par service. We felt quite ignored. I wouldn’t return.
- **Le Tout du Cru, which was one of my favorite meals of the trip. Excellent seafood, cheerful staff, a quieter location tucked away from the main portside area.
- For next time, Ré Ostréa was one of the cutest sea-side places we saw to dine.
On our 74 km bike ride we explored quite a few towns, and were not convinced of other places to stay on the island.
Ars-en-Ré
Ars-en-Ré has a distinctive Romanesque Church (facade especially), but the central areas are limited and it feels more like a suburban holiday town.
La Flotte
La Flotte is cute, a bit more down market compared to Saint-Martin-de-Ré, with a fishing port, small shopping area, and on the outskirts an impressive ruin: *Abbey des Châteliers, dating back to the 12th century. It’s a dramatic site, worth a stop.
Loix
Loix ran a bit too sleepy for my taste, with a very minimal town area and lots of housing. Notable mention, however, for Église catholique Sainte-Catherine, a small and charming little church with good boats. The exact date of the construction of the church is unknown – it was mentioned for the first time in 1379 – and it has been through multiple rounds of renovation over the centuries.
Les Portes-en-Ré
Les Portes-en-Ré appeared to be a more private collection of nicer homes behind walls without much in the way of a central town. Out in the marshes, we enjoyed our meal at **Les Huitres De Trousse Chemise. Order oysters, wine, and pork rillette at the counter, and eat on the picnic tables enjoying the breeze. Very casual, fun!
Articles
- https://littleweekends.fr/guides-voyage-france/ile-de-re/
- Guide for the first time visitor: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/guide-to-ile-de-re-france
- https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/ile-de-re-france
- https://www.cntraveler.com/story/ile-de-re-france-answer-to-marthas-vineyard
La Rochelle
La Rochelle, as a Port, has a long history, including a major role to play in the populating of the Americas (Canada in particular). It’s pretty – most buildings are built out of pale limestone. We were surprisingly a bit underwhelmed by our visit, finding a lot of tourists but not a lot of local life. The beaches were quite windy.
Food and Lodging:
- **Hotel La Monnaie was acceptable. It’s a great location, and has parking if you call ahead. Breakfast is okay. Affordable, space is a little “hip/tired” in style. Not much in the way of service.
- *Bar André was not a total success. It’s huge, and the food was not bad, but the service was really slow and scattered. I’d try another place.
The **Musée du Nouveau Monde was very worthwhile, especially for people from the Americas: a history museum dedicated to relations between La Rochelle and the Americas. The collection is surprisingly good and diverse, and notably it was the first museum to address the slave past of a French port and to exhibit the elements related to the slave trade and slavery in the colonies of the West Indies.
Esnandes
The **Saint-Martin d’Esnandes church is a very interesting Romanesque detour about 20 minutes from La Rochelle. It was built in the 12th century and has an impressive, intact carved front portal. It was rebuilt and fortified in the 14th and 15th centuries (as a defense during the Hundred Years’ War) and really looks like a fortress in the manor-fort style. The interior is not incredibly interesting, but the exterior is impressive for fans of the genre – the church had to be lined by doubling and, sometimes, tripling the thickness of the walls in order to make them able to support the weight of the round path and fortifications (a width between 1.85 and 3 meters). The bays were almost all obstructed from the outside, and a moat put in.
Saintes
Lunch in Saintes at **Le Parvis was wonderful! Lovely courtyard seating and excellent food. Saintes itself has a very old cathedral and Roman arch. The town looks relatively small but nice, not particularly touristy.
Saint-Xandre
**Restaurant Gavroche was a surprisingly good countryside find, with affordable menus and prompt service.
Surgères
**Eglise Notre-Dame de Surgères (about 30 minutes east of La Rochelle) was a worthwhile stop – home to a beautiful 11th-century Romanesque façade with blind arcades and ornate, sometimes humorous sculptural details. It sits within the town’s medieval castle ruins. There isn’t much else in the town, beyond a collection of restaurants.
We had a very good lunch – burger especially! – at **Bonnet d’âne cantine gourmande. Fairly fancy interior, good service, pretty outdoor patio.
