The twenty-kilometre-long Île de Noirmoutier, approximately 60km north of Les Sables-d'Olonne on the D38, was an early monastic settlement of the seventh century; now it has bowed to pilgrims of a different type, serving as a relatively plush tourist resort, though it has been spared the high-rise development of the adjoining coast. Although tourism is the island's main economy, it doesn't dominate everything. Salt marshes here are still worked, spring potatoes sown and fishes fished. The island can be reached in three hours by bus from Les Sables, and is connected to the shore by a toll bridge.The island town, NOIRMOUTIER-EN-L'ÎLE, is a low-key type of place but still has a twelfth-century castle, a church with a Romanesque crypt, an excellent market (Tues & Fri) in place de la République and most of the island's nightlife in the form of piano bars with longer-than-usual café hours. There are campsites dotted around the island – maps are available from the tourist office (July & Aug Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 10am–1pm; Sept–June Mon–Fri 9am–12.30pm & 2–6pm, Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; tel 02.51.39.80.71) on the main road from the bridge at Marmatre. Bikes can be rented from Vel-hop, 55 av Joseph-Pineau in Noirmoutier (tel 02.51.39.01.34), or Charier, 23 av Joseph Pineau (tel 02.51.39.01.25). Among the hotels to try in the town are Le Bois de la Chaize, 23 av de la Victoire (tel 02.51.39.04.62, fax 02.51.39.11.89; €30–40), Hôtel Les Capucines, 38 av de la Victoire (tel 02.51.39.06.82, fax 02.51.39.33.10; €30–40; closed mid-Nov to mid-Feb), which has a nice restaurant with menus from €11.43, and the luxuriously appointed Fleur de Sel, in rue des Saulniers (tel 02.51.39.21.59; [email protected]; over €85), with an excellent seafood restaurant (menus €21–34). A further option in the south of the island is the Hôtel Goéland, 15 route du Gois, in Barbâtre (tel 02.51.39.68.66; €30–40; closed mid-Nov to Jan; restaurant from €11.43). As for exploring the island, the western coast, with its great curves of sand, resembles the mainland, while the northern side dips in and out of little bays with rocky promontories between. Inland, were it not for the saltwater dykes, the horizon would suggest that you were far away from the sea. The more southerly resorts, though built up, have not been the main targets for the developers. In the village centres there are still the one-storey houses that you see throughout La Vendée and southern Brittany – whitewashed and ochre-tiled with decorative brickwork around the windows and S- or Z-shaped coloured bars on the shutters. During the spring, the weather is fickle – sunny one moment, stormy the next – and the heat of the summer cultivates a vicious mosquito population. Alternate spellings:: France, Īle de Noirmoutier, Île de Noirmoutier, Ile de Noirmoutier
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