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French Regions Factsheet id: 22 | |
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La Vendee
You don't go to the Vendée by accident. Tucked away on the west coast of France, this département wedged between the cities of Nantes and La Rochelle, and just below its more high-profile neighbour Brittany, isn't on the way to anywhere. Yet more than 250,000 British holidaymakers visit per year - lured by the promise of sun and sand. Many then fall in love with the low-key attractions of the area, and go on to buy a holiday, or even a permanent, home. French children have always been taught that this large county (the size of Devon) has a varied landscape made up of "marais, plaine, bocage" - marshland, plain and wooded hills (the latter divided into undulating bas-bocage around La Roche-sur-Yon, and the steeper haut-bocage to the east of the département) - as well as the famous littoral, or coast. The département of today takes its name from the river Vendée, that rises in the east of the county and flows through Fontenay-le-Comte before joining the Sèvre Niortaise and, subsequently, L'Aiguillon Bay. The main towns are La Roche-sur-Yon (the capital, with 53,000 inhabitants), Fontenay-le-Comte, Les Sables-d'Olonne, Challans, Luçon, St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Les Herbiers. Just behind come Pouzauges, La Châtaigneraie and Montaigu. The president of the Conseil Général since 1988 has been Philippe de Villiers - a right-wing politician, an MEP, and leader of the Mouvement Pour la France party - who nurtured ambitions to be elected President of France at the 1995 Presidential elections. Though he has many detractors, most of them have to admit that he has done wonders for the Vendée, lifting it out of the economic doldrums as agriculture and fishing went into decline, and encouraging the development of tourism (today's major industry) and manufacturing. The region suffered terribly in the Hundred Years War (against the English) and the Wars of Religion (between Catholic and Protestant), but the most tragic part of its history was the 18th-century uprising known as the Vendée Wars. After the French Revolution of 1789, the government forced on its countrymen new priests loyal to the changed order, demanded even higher taxes, executed King Louis XVI and began to conscript huge numbers of peasants to fight on the distant frontiers of France. Ignoring the new priests who had been assigned to their churches, the devout people of Bas-Poitou (as today's Vendée was then known) continued to worship clandestinely at open-air Masses said by rebellious, pre-Revolutionary clergy. Still royalist for the most part, the Vendeans violently resisted attempts to draft them into the army of the new France. By the middle of 1793 they had elected their own leaders, armed themselves with scythes, billhooks and captured cannon and formed the "Grande Armée Catholique et Royale", a counter-revolutionary force that inflicted heavy defeats on the "Blues", or Republican troops. Three years of bitter civil war throughout the region resulted in fearful loss of life on both sides through battles, massacres and reprisals, and a bout of "ethnic cleansing" during which the Republicans attempted to burn every house and kill every living person and animal. To discourage future insurrection, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to transfer the Vendée's capital to the geographical heart of the county and, in 1804, demoted the then capital of Fontenay-le-Comte in favour of the more centrally-located La Roche-sur-Yon. The marshland, which fringes almost all the coast, has surprisingly diverse characteristics. The most northerly - the open pastureland of the Marais Breton-Vendéen, around Challans - is crossed by many visitors en route to the popular seaside resorts of St-Jean-de-Monts and St-Hilaire-de-Riez. Sea-salt is still produced on a large scale - notably on Noirmoutier island and around Beauvoir-sur-Mer, St-Hilaire-de-Riez, Ile-d'Olonne and Talmont. Another feature of the Marais Breton-Vendéen is its picturesque cob-walled cottages known as bourrines. Built of blocks made from local mud, and originally thatched with reeds from the canals that drain the farmland, they housed the poorest rural workers - though, ironically, are now sought after by the wealthy as chic second homes. The Marais Poitevin, stretching from La Tranche-sur-Mer to the Vendée's south-eastern boundary and beyond, has a very different atmosphere and falls into two distinct areas. That nearest to the coast is made up of open and treeless marshland - the marais désseché. Farther east, to the south of Fontenay-le-Comte, lies the idyllic marais mouillé - known here as "la Venise Verte" - the most picturesque marshland of all. In this tranquil "Green Venice", visitors walk or cycle along the towpaths, and take trips along duckweed-covered canals in flat-bottomed craft called plates. If you drive southward between junctions 6 and 7 on the delightfully empty A83 motorway, you cross part of the plaine, a wedge-shaped area of fertile prairie producing crops of corn and sunflowers. At its southern edge stands the dignified cathedral town of Luçon - to which the future cardinal Richelieu was appointed bishop in 1606. West of the plain, the gently undulating landscape of the bas-bocage features fields and hedges, rivers and small villages. Attractive places include Mareuil-sur-Lay, centre of the Vendée's main wine-producing area, and Apremont, on the edge of the département's largest lake and dominated by a ruined Renaissance castle. Talmont-St-Hilaire is a pleasant little town, dominated by the ruins of a fortress built by Richard the Lionheart. The haut-bocage, towards the eastern border of the Vendée, offers wide views from the slopes of Pouzauges, from the village of Les Épesses, or from St-Michel-Mont-Mercure. Charming stone-built towns and villages include Mouchamps, Vouvant, Mallièvre, Mouilleron-en-Pareds, Bazoges-en-Pareds and La Pommeraie-sur-Sèvre. Just east of the small industrial town of Les Herbiers, the Puy-du-Fou is the county's number-one tourist attraction, with its daytime historical park and its spectacular night-time son-et-lumière (known as the "Cinéscénie"). For the latter, more than 2,000 local volunteers dance on water, joust on horseback, juggle, herd pigs, turn cartwheels and do anything else required to demonstrate the Vendée's turbulent history to the accompaniment of eye-popping stunts and spectacular effects of lights, music and lasers. Other popular summer tourist attractions are: daytime and evening visits of Richard Coeur-de-Lion's château at Talmont; hilarious demonstrations of medieval warfare at "Bluebeard's castle", in Tiffauges; an enjoyable journey through green valleys and across dizzying viaducts on a steam-train service from Mortagne-sur-Sèvre. There are five golf-courses in the département, and plenty of opportunity for bird-watching, especially at peak migration times. A 150km cycleway now runs along the entire coast of the Vendée, from the oyster-beds of Bouin to the mussel-producing bay of L'Aiguillon. Off the shores of the Vendée lie two islands. Most easily reached is low-lying Noirmoutier, accessible by bridge and - far more excitingly - by driving along a 4.5km-long causeway at low tide. To reach the more distant and rugged island of Yeu, which you can tour by rented bike in a day, requires a boat trip. Back on the mainland, favourite seaside towns and villages are Fromentine, near Noirmoutier bridge; the fishing port of St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie; the large resort of Les Sables-d'Olonne (start and finish of the notorious Vendée-Globe yacht race); Jard-sur-Mer - especially the beachside retirement home of fiery French politician Georges Clemenceau; and some older parts of La Tranche-sur-Mer. Among the largest markets are those of Challans, Fontenay, Luçon and Les Sables - all worth a visit for sparklingly fresh shellfish and fish (including sardines from St-Gilles), delicious butter, cream and cheese, and every sort of fruit, vegetable and salad imaginable. In restaurants local ham, beef and duck are usually on the menu everywhere. Look out, too, for "mogettes" the soft white haricot beans beloved of Vendeans, and the delicious local brioche - for which every baker has his special recipe. Author: Angela Bird Angela Bird is the author of the guidebook "The Vendée" (Malnoue Publications, £9.95), available through any UK bookshop, or via the following link direct from Amazon There is additional information about the area on her website http://www.the-vendee.co.uk/ Disclaimer: This article should be regarded as a guideline only. It has not been updated since Mar. 9 2005. Total France cannot warranty that the information it contains is either accurate or current. Do not make any decisions without obtaining professional advice that you know to be current. The above article is © the author where stated, or © TotalFrance where no author is named The article may be printed for personal reference, but may not be published,copied or re-used for any other purpose without permission. |
