Noirmoutier – Travels of John and Flo

August 26, 2018October 19, 2020

L’Ile de Noirmoutier

For more than 20 years we have returned each summer to the island of Noirmoutier, (just off the French coast, a little south of Nantes), spending the month of August visiting family and enjoying a very laid-back style of life, a welcome change for many years from our otherwise busy business lifestyle. For the kids it was a time to reconnect with their cousins and polish up on their French. This past August I brought my drone along and did a little filming of the island. Shooting with a drone on Noirmoutier can be difficult as it is often quite windy and the weather can change quickly. Here’s the results.

October 2, 2014October 19, 2020

Ile d’Yeu (Island of Yeu), France

While visiting the island of Noirmoutier, we decided to do a day-trip to the neighboring island of Yeu, which is accessible by a fast ferry that leaves from the mainland at Fromentine and takes just 30 minutes to make the trip. Another way to get there is by helicopter. It costs $100 euros and you get to take in the spectacular coastline of the continent, Noirmoutier and Yeu. Taking the ferry in one direction and the flying the other way would be a good option.

September 29, 2014October 19, 2020

Passage du Gois, Noirmoutier, France

For many years we have spent part of our summers on the island of Noirmoutier, in the French Atlantic just below Nantes. There are a two ways to get to Noirmoutier, one is by boat and the other by vehicle. And by vehicle you can take a bridge that was built in the 1970s or you can take Le Gois, a 4.5 km. French national highway built in the 1800s that runs from the mainland to the island, and which is only passable at low tide. There are some, however, who try to take the road when it isn’t low tide, or those who have been out on the flats browsing around, who get caught when the tide rises. For them towers were constructed with ladders so they can escape the incoming tide. Unfortunately there is no room on these towers for their vehicles so on a high tide it will get washed away.

August 11, 2013October 19, 2020

L’Isle de Noirmoutier

Noirmoutier is an island off the coast of France, in the Atlantic, just below Nantes and Brittany. We vacation here frequently as there’s a summer cottage of the family in a small town, Herbaudiere, at the far end of the island beside the port. The island is flat. So flat that at times with the combination of a high tide and a storm, at times the ocean has made its way completely over the island. It is just 12 miles long and only 4 miles at its widest beam.