FOURAS, some 30km south of La Rochelle, is the main embarkation point for the tiny Île d'Aix, where Napoléon spent his last days in Europe. It's an uninspiring town, redeemed only by a clutch of popular beaches and the presqu'île, the peninsula that extends 3km out to sea from the town centre, terminating at the ferry dock, Pointe de la Fumée. The peninsula is bordered by oyster beds, and off its westernmost tip at low tide can be seen the bouchots à moules, lines of mussel-encrusted stumps of wood. At high tide this is a popular place to fish for crevettes (shrimp). The finger of land is hemmed by sea-dashed fortresses, originally intended to protect the Charente, and particularly La Rochelle, against Norman attack, and later employed against the Dutch in the seventeenth century and English in the eighteenth. The seventeenth-century Fort Vauban (daily 3–5pm) now houses a small, uninspiring, local maritime museum, but its esplanade offers a magnificent panorama of neighbouring forts and islands.Fouras's tourist office, which also serves the Île d'Aix, is situated in the Fort Vauban (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 10am–12.30pm & 1–6pm; mid-Sept to mid-June Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 9am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; tel 05.46.84.60.69). As for places to stay, Fouras has a posse of overpriced hotels, many of which can be contacted online at www.fouras.net, but first options should be the good-value Roseraie, at 2 av du Port-Nord (tel 05.46.84.64.89; €55–70), and the comfortable Grand Hotel des Bains, 15 rue Géneral Bruncher (tel 05.46.84.03.44, fax 05.46.84.58.26; €55–70), housed in an old post office with a lovely courtyard. There are also three campsites around the town: the Fumée, near the ferry port (tel 05.46.84.26.77; closed Oct–April); the L'Espérance off avenue Philippe-Jannet (tel 05.46.84.24.18; closed Oct to mid-April); and the Cadoret, near to plage Nord on avenue du Cadoret (tel 05.46.82.19.19). The best-value food in town is probably from Restaurant La Jetée at Pointe de la Fumée (tel 05.46.84.60.43; closed Jan & Tues out of season), which serves excellent seafood at affordable prices (menus €12.20–21.34).
Pages in section ‘Fouras’: Île d'Aix.
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