Last week's holiday in the Charente (2) - the wild coast & île d'Oléron

Or in French, the côte sauvage.  During summer packed with people, during winter ghost villages.  The beaches in some areas not densely populated (when far from a village).  A popular place for kite surfers, the more deserted beaches popular with the Dutch and the Belgium people and some sunseekers who prefer to go nude. 
Our first visit was to Mornac sur Seudre.  Well known as a lovely village populated by many artists. And of course, as everywhere in this region, oyster farms.  To our disappointment everything was closed as it was a week day.  During July and August they stay open all day, but out of season, they only open during weekends.  We took a walk through the winding streets of the village, but I fear, to experience the village in the state that excites our family in Fouras so much, we'll have to go return another time.

From there we left to La Palmyre on the Baie de Bonne Anse.  It is a beautiful bay formed at the northern mouth of the Garonne (the same river that flows through the well known city Bordeaux). 

Below: look at the sand dunes in the background

Above & below: on the way to the lighthouse (that was also closed), we've stopped along the road to take these photo's, as they give you an idea of the typical look you'll find along the wild coast - pine trees (in some cases large forests) bordering the ocean

Above & below: as La Palmyre's restaurants were all closed for winter, we were forced to drive to Ronce-les-Bains where we fortunately found 1 restaurant open.  JL loves the seafood platters in the Charente, not expensive at all!

Above: the beach of Ronce-les-Bains

Below: the bridge towards île d'Oléron, you can sometimes get confused where you are as all the bridges crossing the rivers and ocean look similar!

île d'Oléron - the second biggest island in France, after Corsica

It is as popular as île de Ré, although I still favour île de Ré, perhaps because it is smaller.  Due to its popularity, we found more life there than in the wild coast.

Below: Le Château-d'Oléron, situated on the south of the island.  The area already had inhabitants by 3000 BC.  The Romans considered the area as important due to the salt production in the area.  During Louis XIV & Richelieu the importance continued (all along the islands and coast here you'll find fortifications as protection against England)

the colourful oyster shops

Above & below: inside the fort (what was left after WWII as 95% was destroyed during a bombing of the Alliance about a month before the end of the war)

Above: the small harbour &

below: some photo's of the bombing that took place during WWII

Above: on the way to St Pierre d'Oléron (capital of the island) we've passed this small village and stopped at the beach below

We had a great view of fort boyard.  The beautiful big sandy beach was very inviting and I can imagine in summer time it is packed with people

Below: we also had a good view of Fouras from here

Above:  this is a typical scene of the eastern side of the island, covered with oyster farms

Above: St Pierre d'Oléron and to our surprise, we found a tourist article of SA in a shop!