Noirmoutier

The Passage du Gois is a paved causeway about four kilometres long running across the mudflats to Noirmoutier, and it is passable only for a window of roughly an hour and a half either side of low tide; rescue towers stand along it for drivers who misjudge the timing, and cars are still lost most years. A bridge built in 1971 provides the reliable route. The island itself is low, salt-marsh country with working salt pans, mimosa and holm oak, whitewashed houses with pantiled roofs, and a sandy soil that produces the bonnotte, an early potato harvested by hand in May and sold at high prices.

History

A dolmen, menhirs and a Gallo-Roman villa with baths show early occupation, but the island's recorded history begins with the monastery of Her founded by Saint Philibert about 680, from which the name Noirmoutier comes. Vikings raided the abbey in 799 and made the island a permanent base around 824, from which they sacked Bordeaux in 848, and Hastein raided Francia and Brittany from it between 862 and 882. The abbey of Notre-Dame la Blanche was built at the north end in 1205 and ruined by Protestants in 1562; the island belonged to the La Trémoille family from the 15th to the 17th century and became a duchy in 1650, and on 4 July 1674 Dutch forces under Cornelis Tromp briefly took it, leaving on 23 July after blowing up the castle. Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier was born on the island on 31 July 1796 (Wikipedia, Noirmoutier).

Highlights

• The Passage du Gois - a causeway submerged for most of each day.
• The salt pans - working marshes in the island's centre.
• The whitewashed villages - low houses with pantiles and blue shutters.
• The bonnotte harvest - hand-dug early potatoes in May.

When to go

May to September; the bonnotte harvest is in May. Tide tables govern any use of the Gois entirely. Summer traffic on the bridge queues badly on changeover weekends.

Good to know

Driving the Gois outside the safe window is genuinely dangerous and vehicles are lost there. The island is flat and can feel featureless in poor weather. August accommodation is scarce.

Nearby

The Ile d'Yeu lies south; Pornic is north.

Key facts