Noirmoutier Island is positioned within the Atlantic Ocean close to the Vendée coast of France. It is attached to the mainland by a submersible route, dependent on the tides, and a bridge. Covering a place of 49 rectangular kilometers, it stretches 18 kilometers in length and up to 12 kilometres at its widest point. Nicknamed the "Island of Mimosas" for its moderate microclimate, its miles taken into consideration a jewel of the Vendée place. Its capital is Noirmoutier-en-l'Île.
With its long sandy seashores, pine forests, a moderate and regularly sunny climate, charming white houses with blue shutters, and picturesque fishing ports, Noirmoutier Island undoubtedly possesses all the features of an unspoiled beach paradise, delighting out-of-doors enthusiasts. All of that is just a stone's throw from the Vendée coast and less than 100 kilometers from Nantes.
Map of Noirmoutier Island
| Name | Noirmoutier Island (French: Île de Noirmoutier) |
| Country | France |
| Department | Vendée |
| Coordinates | 46°58′N 2°13′W |
| Area | 49 km2 (19 sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC +1 |
| Population | 9,590 |
| Airport | N/A |
The call Noirmoutier originates from the Latin herio Monasterio, which means "monastery of Her". It is located in the northern part of the island.
Noirmoutier has been inhabited seeing that prehistoric times, and within the 7th century, Saint Philibert, a monk and founding father of the abbey at Jumièges, present-day with King Dagobert, settled here in 674 established the Hermoutier monastery. He initiated the first salt harvesting sports by using building dikes. The Viking invasions necessitated the development of fortifications, with the help of the Lords of La Garnache, starting in 830, and the fort turned into completed in the twelfth century. Like different Atlantic islands, Noirmoutier has a history marked with the aid of several attacks from the Spanish, English, Huguenots, and Dutch. In truth, the island, profiting from unique privileges, changed into a coveted land due to the fact smuggling, particularly tobacco, changed into easily performed there.
Secret exchange reached its height in the 17th century, with tobacco being received from North American colonies. The 18th century saw the island tackle a new appearance with the development of numerous dikes and polders. Hundreds of hectares of marshland were tired using strategies introduced using the Flemish, mainly using Jean-Cornel Jacobsen, who reclaimed almost 1,000 hectares of land. This Dutch service provider built a non-public mansion, still visible nowadays at Place d'Armes, and the Jacobsen Dam, which leads from the port to Sableaux seaside, is known after him.
With the emergence of those new lands, grain cultivation flourished, and the salt marshes continue to be energetic nowadays.
During the French Revolution, Noirmoutier witnessed numerous battles, with the Vendéens accomplishing their first victory in 1793, but the Republicans emerged victorious the following year.
Since the upward thrust of tourism in the nineteenth century, the metropolis of Noirmoutier shares territorial authority with 4 different cities, which have grown to commune: La Guérinière and its bouquets, L'Epine and its Bois des Eloux, the port of Morin, and Barbâtre with its Grand Plage, which stretches over 5 kilometers. L'Herbaudière and its old port are a part of Noirmoutier.
The complete island is ready with cycling paths and trekking trails, allowing exploration of its various landscapes: beaches, forests, marshes, and dunes.
Undoubtedly, you'll be charmed by the aid of its beach huts, turbines, port activities, and cultural background, including the Château Museum, a symbol of feudal electricity. The dungeon of Noirmoutier, built at the end of the seventeenth century, became the work of Pierre V de l. A. Garnache within the twelfth century.
How to Get to Noirmoutier Island
Noirmoutier is only a 1-hour and 20-minute pressure from Nantes, which is related to numerous French towns through TGV. Buses function year-spherical among Nantes station and Noirmoutier Island (Line 13; about five buses consistent with day in winter and around 15 according to day in summer season), with several stops along the manner.
You can reach Noirmoutier via the Noirmoutier Bridge at Fromentine or by taking the Passage du Gois (accessible 1 hour and 30 minutes earlier than and after low tide) from Beauvoir-sur-mer by car.
From early July to the top of August, the Noirmoutier-en-l'Île commune gives a commute provider (Gratibus), which runs to the beaches, passing through Bois de los Angeles Chaise, Vieil, and L'Herbaudière.
On the island, a bus service operates between the 4 towns for simply €0.50 consistent with experience, with tickets available on board.
Best Things to Do on Noirmoutier Island
Crossing the Gois Passage
Before the bridge opened in 1971, it changed into the sole terrestrial connection between Noirmoutier Island and the mainland. Due to the unpredictable tides, this course was unstable, because the legendary 4.2-kilometer submerged path, Passage du Gois, became reachable handiest for 6 hours every day: 1 hour and 30 minutes earlier than and after every tide!
At different times, the road is submerged underwater (with depths ranging from 1.5 to four meters, depending on the tidal variety), and one needs to work out extreme warnings while the water degree starts to rise. The beacon serves as a haven for people who emerge as stranded via the growing tide.
Traversing the expansive foreshore, in which birds and fishermen walk to reap clams, oysters, and cockles, offers a unique journey that deepens one's information of Noirmoutier's island characteristics.
The Gois Passage is particular because of its excellent period; it was fashioned after huge deposits of sand and silt amassed where two currents converge on a flat seabed. Its first mention on maps dates back to 1701, and paving handiest started in 1939.
Strolling Through the Streets of Noirmoutier
As the "capital" of the island, the metropolis of Noirmoutier is full of attraction, particularly inside the Banzeau district, where lovely streets are lined with hollyhocks and quaint white fishermen's cottages adorned with colorful shutters. This historic location of Noirmoutier facilities around the bell tower of Saint Philibert Church, which is home to relics of the island's patron saint and a movable eleventh-century crypt.
Opposite the church stands the Noirmoutier Castle Museum (twelfth century), blanketed by way of its city partitions. Its large rectangular keep, flanked by 4 nook towers, stands proudly. From the summit, you will enjoy breathtaking views of the town, the salt marshes, and the Bay of Bourgneuf. Inside, a small museum traces the history of Noirmoutier and hosts transient exhibitions.
Noirmoutier-en-l'Île is vibrant with many stores, cafés, and restaurants lining the Grande Rue and the harbor docks. We pleasure in wandering via the streets to the small harbor prolonged via the Jacobsen Dock—a 2-kilometer-long dike that stretches alongside the Müllembourg Marsh Nature Reserve, a desired stopover for migratory birds.
Exploring Noirmoutier's History at the Jacobsen Hotel
You must open the doors of this wonderful mansion, built in 1760 by the prosperous Jacobsen family from the Netherlands, who transformed the island within the 18th century with dikes and polders.
In 2019, the Jacobsen Hotel was converted right into a Maritime Heritage Center, allowing visitors to explore Noirmoutier’s records and maritime historical past via about ten meticulously restored rooms.
On the first ground, the island-formed rooms detail the "advent" of Noirmoutier, which has been in large part shaped by using human interest. The well-known shows, in particular, highlight the function of dunes and docks in safety, the development of salt marshes, the land reclamation as a result of polders since the seventeenth century, the formation of fantastically fertile farmland, or even the function of the Gois Passage because the 17th century.
Cycling Through Noirmoutier
Noirmoutier Island offers an extensive attraction for cycling fans. With no much less than 83 kilometers of motorcycle paths, you could effects traverse this unremarkable island (highest point: 23 meters), together with 3 themed routes: 19 kilometers between beaches and harbors; 18 kilometers between marshes and mills; and 23 kilometers between the Gois Passage and the woodland.
You can cycle throughout the whole island on routes that consist of cycle tracks on roads, or paths solely for cyclists (or pedestrians) on seashores and herbal sites.
Noirmoutier boasts a dozen or so bike apartment corporations so that you can without difficulty explore without a car. Daily buses run from the island to Nantes SNCF station.
Exploring Bois de la Chaise and Its Iconic Beaches
Bois de la Chaise, placed at the doorway to Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, is a famous destination in elegant Noirmoutier. This staggering green lung, decorated with all righttrees, maritime pines, and mimosas, exudes a nearly Mediterranean atmosphere, making it ideal for peaceful, shaded walks.
At the coronary heart of this lush greenery lie stunning villas, known as "cabane," surrounded using a community of private paths that have loved idyllic days since the reason that early 20th century. Some even sit down by using the ocean, consisting of Sableaux Beach. These captivating beach structures were constructed by way of prosperous families from the place and range in style, handed down through generations.
Anse Rouge is nestled at the foot of the woods in a secluded cove, capabilities an incredible crescent-fashioned seashore that resembles a private retreat, surrounded by approximately 20 well-maintained small cabins. It assesses the popular Plage des Dames, positioned beyond the Butte du Bois. This iconic and preferred village of Noirmoutier boasts picturesque bathing huts and a wood pier infused with the environment of the "Belle Époque," representing the early twentieth-century seaside tourism of the island.
Dropping Anchor in L’Herbaudière and Vieil
Upon arriving in Le Vieil, the surroundings turn into much less sublime and extra old-fashioned. Le Vieil is a charming fishing village with low, white houses regularly embellished with plant life.
One of its highlights is the pleasant Café Gustave, in which you could take a nice destroy. At Carnival Beach, film aficionados will understand the residence with blue shutters, related to César and Rosalie, in addition to Romy Schneider and Yves Montand. For the curious, Brutus-Villeroy Street is an ought-to-see—a narrow alleyway with a width of much less than 1 meter!
Additionally, within the northern part of the island, L'Herbaudière nevertheless capabilities a bustling fishing port (known for shellfish, flounder, bass, and many others.) and is domestic to the primary dock built in the Vendée. It is likewise a colorful area for strolling, with cafés, food shops, and first-rate eating places.
Admiring the Flora and Fauna of the Müllembourg Reserve and Sébastopol Polders
Noirmoutier Island is also renowned for its wealthy natural world, especially for birdwatching in its natural reserves.
Southeast of Le Bonhomme, just earlier than the Passage du Gois, lies the Sébastopol Polders, a 4-kilometer-lengthy, 600-meter-huge area reclaimed from the ocean in the late 19th century. In 1978, the protecting dikes collapsed, inundating the polders and ending their agricultural use.
Now transformed into a nature reserve, it protects approximately 230 plant species and over two hundred resident or migratory bird species. From April to July, hundreds of nesting water birds, terns, gulls, and waders make it their domestic. Additionally, it's far inhabited by using over 2 hundred species of butterflies and mammals, and 12 fish species. A 3.2-kilometer trail lets in for exploration, and with a bit of success, you would possibly even come across a stunning marketplace garden cow along the manner!
Another sizeable reserve is the Müllembourg Marsh, managed via LPO, which serves as a haven for lots of migratory birds (shorebirds, ducks, geese, and so forth.) at the entrance to Noirmoutier-en-l'Île.
Stepping onto the Sands of the Western Coast’s Magnificent Beaches
With 40 kilometers of seashores, you've got a wealth of alternatives when spreading your towel in the sand. Beyond swimming and relaxing, you could engage in cruising, small-boat navigation, kite browsing, beach yachting, kayaking, paddle boarding, jet skiing, scuba diving, sea-taking walks, fishing, waterskiing, and of the route, boat leases. The Atlantic coast of Noirmoutier functions as the island's most expansive seashores.
In the southwest of the island, Barbâtre gives a 7-kilometer stretch of seaside facing the fresh Atlantic air, bordered by way of dunes and pine forests.
Further north, the beaches of La Guérinière expand over 8 kilometers alongside the bay, dotted with old windmills and fortifications. They lie earlier than L'Épine Beach, overlooking Bois des Éloux (the island’s highest point at 23 meters), in which you can walk to Pointe du Devin.
Luzeronde Beach, nestled between Pointe du Devin and the port of L'Herbaudière, is cleverly situated within the cove of a bay, stretching among dunes and Luzeronde woodland in blanketed surroundings. This white sand seashore, extremely naturist in person, appears to include the great Atlantic to the west. The sunsets there are breathtaking.
Visiting the Salt Marshes and Discovering Noirmoutier’s White Gold
Noirmoutier is more than just a summer season and seaside resort; the island has preserved its agricultural background, famously producing salt because of the Middle Ages. Nearly a third of its surface vicinity is protected through salt marshes, the maximum of which are positioned in L'Épine, at the center of the island.
Noirmoutier’s salt is quite famous, having delivered wealth to the island from the thirteenth to the 19th century. Today, around a hundred thirty artisan salt people nevertheless use conventional techniques in their labyrinth of canals and clay basins, generating a mean of three,000 heaps of this "white gold" yearly.
During the summer harvest season, the scenery is magical, and you may be part of guided tours led by way of passionate producers who will introduce you to their craft. You'll have the risk to emerge as familiar with technical phrases like “œillet,” “tesselier,” or “salorge,” and gain a better expertise of the difference between coarse salt and the delicate fleur de sel—a should-have memento to bring back from your trip.
Enjoy the Delights of Noirmoutier
Noirmoutier is a connoisseur island with numerous exceptional eating places.
Aside from the 100% natural fleur de sel, directly bought from the salt employees or the salt cooperative, Noirmoutier is likewise famous for its potatoes, whose unique flavor comes from the seaweed used by farmers as fertilizer. These small, sweet potatoes, handpicked most effectively in early May and imbued with a subtle iodine flavor, are a true treasure of Noirmoutier. They are especially rare, with an annual production of around 100 tons, and are taken into consideration the most costly potatoes in the world: in 1996, they were auctioned at Paris's Drouot for almost 500 euros in keeping with kilogram! But rest confident, you can find them at the Noirmoutier markets for around 6 euros consistent with kilogram.
By the beach, the fishing port of L'Herbaudière is abundant with pollock, sea bream, pink mullet, sole, and line-caught sea bass. For oyster fans, head to Bonhomme Port in the middle of the island, in which oyster farmers offer clean oysters at once from the catch.
For those with sweet teeth, a stop at the Petits Cagniotes biscuit factory is a need, wherein you may indulge in salted butter caramels and flavorful crisp cookies.
Video from Noirmoutier Island
References:
https://www.iles.com/fr/ile-noirmoutier.html
https://www.routard.com/reportages-de-voyage/cid140038-ile-de-noirmoutier-nos-coups-de-coeur.html
https://www.baladesetpatrimoine.com/item/noirmoutier/
