GREAT DESTINATIONS ❘ DEUX CHARENTES


“LA ROCHELLE ON THE ATLANTIC COAST IS WHERE THE WELL-HEELED DENIZENS OF PARIS CHOOSE TO TAKE THEIR HOLIDAYS”


I


n the summer, up to nine TGVs a day glide out of Paris’s Gare Montparnasse, headed for La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. This is where the well-heeled denizens of France’s capital city choose to take their holidays. Not for them the brash,


ostentatious seaside resorts of the Midi – they’d much rather enjoy the more understated and frankly cooler (both in temperature and style) coastal region of Charente-Maritime. And the coolest of all is a 30km island called the Île de Ré, more of which later.


There are two neighbouring Charente departments – Charente and Charente-Maritime. The former is slightly inland, incorporating Cognac and Angoulême; the latter occupies a lovely section of Atlantic coast stretching from the mouth of the Gironde river in the south up to the Île de Ré and La Rochelle in the north. Thanks to its airport with links to the UK, it’s in La Rochelle that our driving tour of the Deux


96 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Oct/Nov 2023


Charentes starts. There are four ports in this pretty university town – the fi shing port, the commercial port, the yachting port and, slap bang in the centre, the old port. Add to that three city beaches – the central Plage de la Concurrence, the more studenty Plage des Minimes and the slightly grubbier Plage de Chef de Baie over to the west, where locals like to hide from the tourists.


Modern La Rochelle owes much of its character to Mayor Michel Crépeau who ruled the roost in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Politically a socialist, he was an early adopter of green policies: his legacy can still be seen in the fl eets of public transport that serve the town – the buses, the boats, the electric car-sharing scheme (Yélomobile) and the bike-share scheme (Yélo velo).


Unfortunately Crépeau couldn’t do anything about La Rochelle’s massive, Brutalist German U-boat station, constructed during the Second World War. The Allies tried their best to destroy


IMAGES © LE BAR ANDRÉ/FACEBOOK, CHARENTES TOURISME


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132