Issue No. 15

The area sits neatly between La Rochelle,
Nantes and Poitiers across the
departments of the Vendée, the Deux
Sevres, the Charente and the Vienne. It’s
diverse, quirky, occasionally infuriating and
surprisingly lacking in tourists (well ok,
there’s a few but not compared to other
areas).
Almost in the centre of this quiet little
triangle is the renaissance market town of
Fontenay le Comte which stretches down
in a gloriously straight line from a lofty,
green square at the top of the town, across
the River Vendée and then up again. It’s a
little sleepy unless you arrive on market
day but if you head to the other end of
town and climb up to the Donjon des
Cimes there are amazing views across the
roof tops as well as huge enclosed nets up
in the trees for the kids to play on. It’s in
Fontenay that you first start to get a taste
of the south and it’s not a bad place to be
based to explore.
To the west of Fontenay by about an hour
you have the Atlantic coast with its seaside
towns, the Bay of Aiguillon (home to mud
flats, salt marshes and hundreds of
thousands of migratory birds) and Les
Sables d’Olonne. To the north lie the rolling
hills of the ‘bocage’ and the forest of
Mervent. 4,000 hectares of oak, chestnut
and beech surround a vast lake here, the
result of damming the 2 rivers that flow
through the forest (the Vendée and the
Mère). Ravines, panoramic views, fortified
villages, wildlife and 200km of walks are
the order of the day here and make
Mervent a spellbinding place.