THE Ile de Ré on the French Atlantic coast is renowned for its micro-climate and adored by chi-chi Parisians. The locals will tell you the weather is balmy and benign, but I have been there three times; each time it has rained. I complained to the man in the tabac.
A classics feast in France
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14 tasty cookery courses
Background
The cheese-lover's guide to France
The cunning holiday guide to France in August
The budget guide to the French Riviera
Deauville: a classy Channel resort
Don't pass Pas de Calais
Related Internet Links
Peregrine's France: the Sunday Times francophile reveals all
It has a great little restaurant for dinner and during the day we ran under umbrellas to the nearest bistro to eat oysters. Most of the people in the restaurant seemed to be from Ireland. With the combination of rain, oysters and gentle Irish accents, it felt rather as if we were in Cork.
After a day of rain and a delicious dinner in the Hôtel de Toiras restaurant we decided to explore some of the other islands. Noirmoutier is a three-hour drive north. It is linked to the mainland - rather quaintly they call it the Continent - via a bridge, but also by the Gois, a road that is exposed at low tide.
Legend says that it is a Roman road. There are still parts that are paved, but most of it is covered in bitumen. The south end of the island is rather plain, flat and full of potato fields, but near the northern tip the landscape perks up. The houses are white, mainly single storey, with blue painted shutters.
The main town, Noirmoutier-en-Ile, has many restaurants offering seafood and crêpes. We ate at the Grand Four and consumed the largest lobster that I have ever seen.
The Bois de la Chaise is the most exclusive part of the island, a holm-oak forest under which you can picnic. Some years ago the bourgeois of Nantes imported granite and built colossal houses. You can just make them out among the trees, large and grey like elephants. Jean Renoir came to Noirmoutier and was charmed.
The island's tourist attractions include a cheese museum and a goat farm. We didn't visit either, but headed back to the Ile de Ré. Rather unexpectedly, the sun was shining, so we went for a bike ride around a nature reserve. We were staying in Ars-en-Ré, the curiously named town at the west tip of the island, where Johnny Depp is reputed to have a house.
We didn't stay long on the Ile de Ré because it started raining again, so we caught a boat to the neighbouring island of Ile d'Aix. There is something quite satisfying about getting a boat to an island. You have the adventure of the crossing, making sure you catch the right boat, and the thrill of carting your wife's luggage along like a stevedore.
The ferry for the Ile d'Aix leaves from Fournas. It is prompt - there are two in the morning and two in the afternoon - and the journey takes barely 20 minutes.
The Ile d'Aix is a small, crescent-shaped island, in places less than 5m wide. It has a couple of sandy beaches, which are strewn with oyster shells. There are few things to see, unless you are interested in fortifications or Napoleon. There is a Napoleon museum. Napoleon spent his last few days on French soil here, before being transferred to Saint Helena. It must have come as a blessed relief.
A classics feast in France
The Times' cartoonist crosses the Channel to find a flourishing chamber music festival in an abbey in northern France
Teen cooking classes in France
Cathy Smith's daughter and friend weren't quite teenagers when they visited, but they were soon cooking up a storm
14 tasty cookery courses
Background
The cheese-lover's guide to France
The cunning holiday guide to France in August
The budget guide to the French Riviera
Deauville: a classy Channel resort
Don't pass Pas de Calais
Related Internet Links
Peregrine's France:
We were booked into a rather mouldy B&B - the Hotel Napoleon is closed for reburbishment - although it was clean enough and the boiled egg for breakfast was outstanding. The evening before we had cycled around the island, looked at the fortifications, and endured a dreadful dinner in the Café de l'Océan.
The wine was undrinkable and the food was dreary and expensive. The next morning we tried to look in at the Napoleon museum, but it opened after the last ferry for the day was leaving, and we did not fancy missing that. My wife stopped scowling only once we had got back to the Continent. “Shall we go to the Ile de Ré?”
If the Ile de Ré is chic, and the Ile d'Aix is shabby, then the Ile d'Oléron is shabby-chic. It is the largest of the Atlantic islands, and the first to be connected to the mainland by a bridge.
This led to a glut of building: show a Frenchman a beauty spot and his first inclination is to cover it either in electricity pylons or lotissements (small houses, packed together like a campsite). But if you can look beyond the campsites and caravans, you will discover an island with some of the best beaches in the world.
Unlike the Ile de Ré, the beaches of the Ile d'Oléron run parallel to the Atlantic. The result is waves that have come untouched from the Americas and crash on the beach with an energy that is palpable.
My wife didn't feel it. She prefers the Ile de Ré above all others. I loved Noirmoutier, but if I were forced to choose just one beach, it would be the Grande Plage on the Ile d'Oléron and in the evening I would eat oysters and wash them down with a bottle of cheverny. And be as happy as the Walrus and the Carpenter.
source:the london times
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