The dunes are protected all along the coast, so instead of build-up beaches you have beaches with the feeling of wild nature, I love it
Below: some beaches, like this one, you can only access by foot or by bicycle. We were there early in the morning - if you arrive later the bicycles are piled up along the protective fences and you have to search for a parking spot!
Many of them have schools teaching people to surf/kite-surf/whatever!
Like in other areas along the west coast the ugly bunkers from WWII remind you of the time when this area was occupied by the Nazi's
Below: during our holiday France had a major heatwave. I was just too happy to have summer, hence no complaint! But we've realised some days were too hot to go cycling and explored the villages more north on the island by car. I took some photo's whle driving to give you an idea what it looks like - there are many forests, oyster farms (salty marshes), vineyards, maize and wheat. In short - beaches, cycling, agriculture and aquaculture, that's what you can expect!
I love the old stone walls you see so often in France, this one hiding an old building behind that looked like it could have belonged to a rich lord
Above and below; the garden of the phare de Chassiron (the northern point of the island) is landscaped in the shape of a compass (on an aerial photo it looks like a compass surrounding the lighthouse). We didn't visit the lighthouse or its museum, as we did a lot of cycling earlier in the morning before the worst heat and thought it prudent to save our bums.
Not the sandy beaches you find further south, one can see the reason why they chose this spot for the lighthouse!
From the north we've followed the east coast, first stopping at Saint Denis (no, don't ask me how many towns/villages in France starts with Saint or Sainte - far too many in my opinion!!!!)
It has an important school for yachting, along with other water sport, but we were surprised to see the busy beach!
The colourful beach cabins reminded me of those in Muizenberg
On the water it was just as busy with windsurfers, kayaks, yachts, etc
And below: the little harbour
Along the harbour your have benches where you can sit down in more tranquillity than on the beach
Above: another small harbour just south of Saint Denis - with a fisherman trying to catch his fish of the day
Below: and another long sandy beach, a bit further south at La Brée les Bains (where a freak thunderbolt a few days later landed two ladies in the hospital, fortunately it was reported a few days later that they were fine)
Above: see what I mean with the 'wild' look along the beaches?
Below: the ghost town of Saint-Georges (the fact that we could find parking quite easily should have been a warning) - there are beautiful buildings, some resembling old châteaux that can tell stories of days in the past when wealthy owners (oyster farmers, salt owners, Huguenots?) lived there, a shady square where you can play pétanque (yes, still a very popular game in France, played by all ages). The one restaurant was fully book, the other one didn't interest us, so as I was cursing my stinging attackers, we've escaped to Saint-Pierre, the capital of the island
Below: arriving in Saint-Pierre - proof of the heatwave and summer, blue sky at 20.04 and the temp in the shade measured at 29°!
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