Ile-de-Ré is, apparently, a favourite holiday location for Parisians. Looking into the estate agents’ windows you can see this reflected in the prices: around €500,000 for a plot or a ruin ready for re-building, or in excess of €1M for anything decent. The small streets of Rivedoux-Plage and other towns on the island are riddled with tiny streets and tiny, single story houses, mostly with closed shutters and electric gates, painted in the statutory green, awaiting the August onslaught.
We were there in late May / early June, just late enough to catch the early summer sunshine but still early enough to find some peaceful places to visit with quiet roads and cycles lanes ideally suited to our fold-up bikes. Our hotel, L’Hotel du Grand Large, was on the south coast, one of the first main hotels to be found after paying the €8 toll charge and crossing the Pont de Ré. Our superior sea view room on the third floor (one of only 3) was worth the extra, giving us a splendid view of the beach and a passing interest in the various cruise ships going in and out of La Rochelle. The beautiful, sandy beach was right opposite beckoning us for walks at various times of the day – although the sight of various stranded jellyfish encouraged us to swim in the hotel pool.
Reluctant as we often are to eat in the hotel’s own restaurant, the Restaurant du Large would have been our choice regardless. The price was reasonable and the menu simple – few choices but all well presented and delicious. A surprise was the local wine. The Prestige Chardonnay, produced on the island, was not quite a fine Chablis, but more than good enough with the meal or as an aperitif.
The island is only about 30 km long at its maximum, so a motor tour is easily done in a day. We first made for the Domaine Pelletier to taste their range of locally produced wines, but disappointingly, the various Sauvignon Blanc and Colombard combinations did not hit the mark, so we settled for some of the Prestige Chardonnay that we had enjoyed in the hotel.
We could not miss going to Ars-en-Re, a little further along the coast, or perhaps the arse end of the island. The entrance to the town proclaimed it to be one of the most beautiful villages in France, though that was an exaggeration. The town was nice enough, but the shoreline around, lined with old salt extraction rectangles, was far more interesting, and best seen on foot or by bike. Plenty of wading birds were to be seen picking their way through the salt marshes.
On the way back we were keen to stop at what we had heard was the most beautiful and interesting town on the island, St-Martin-de-Ré. The first view was not encouraging: a large and nearly full car park with a sign warning you that this was the last parking place before the pedestrianised zone. At least there was one hour’s free parking. We assembled the bikes and rolled down the slope into town, but might as well not have bothered – there were too many people around to allow much cycling so we walked and pushed the bikes. An ice cream seemed tempting, but the queue was not so we soon re-traced our steps to the car.
Much more to our style was a drink in the extremely rustic beach bar near the hotel, also buzzing with life on a Saturday night, but not in an overbearing St-Martin way.
Sunday saw the already cool weather turn even more unseasonably cool, with a cloudy sky most of the day. But a walk all round the point on the beach was still fun, ending with watching fishermen digging for worms in the sand. The next day, the weather map showed a strip of clear sky across the island and La Rochelle, with most of the rest of France under cloud. On a beautiful, sunny day we cycled to Ste-Marie-en-Ré on cycle paths that wove their way between beaches and vineyards. Far less of a tourist hotspot than St Martin this was a pretty village with quiet, sandy beaches and a relaxed restaurant in the town square.
