The Vendée has been a favourite destination for holiday makers since the early 1800's, originally it was a destination principally for the French now people from literally all over the world visit. The massive expanse of beaches has superbly fine sand sloping gently to the sea. Named the "Cote Luminaire" as it has one of the sunniest climates in France, the Vendéen coast together with the beaches, have made it a beach vacationers paradise. The glorious beaches and weather may have been what started people visiting the Vendée as a tourist destination, but today the widely divergent aspects of the Vendéen countryside, its history and culture are as big an attraction.

The Landscape of the Vendée is an interaction between nature’s exuberance and man. From on top the highest point in the Vendee looking down, one has the sense that the whole area is a forest, for much of the land is covered by the 'bocage,' small fields with high hedges and narrow winding lanes, In fact the only large forested area is the Mervent-Vouvant Forest in the South East of the Vendée.The bocage itself is divided into the Haut and the Bas Bocage, or Higher and Lower Bocage.

The coastal region comprises typically of long sandy beaches often backed by sand dunes upon which have been planted pine trees to stabilise the shifting sands. There is an area of low cliffs and rocky outcrops from south of Les Sable d'Olonne to le Rocher near Longville. Behind the sand dunes are the three areas of marais (marshes). In the north is the Marais Breton, In the centre the Marais Olonne and in the south, the largest of the three wetlands, the Marais Poitevin which spills over into the neighbouring departments of Deux Sevres and Charente-Maritime. It contains over 24,000 kilometres of ditches and canals plus 600 kilometres of larger canals and rivers, it is the second largest marshland in France, in all covering .05% of the land mass of France.

The Vendée does not possess any real cities, even the towns are not that large, but it does have charming and picturesque small towns and villages where the quiet life of the rural inhabitants moves on at a leisurely pace. They have their roots in a history of struggle and conflict, even the name Vendéen is quoted by Carl Marx to mean counter revolutionary. Everywhere there are reminders of life from Neolithic times, the medieval and renaissance periods, and the Vendéens’ fight to tame the land.

For the Holiday maker, the Vendee and its people warmly welcome you, every effort is made to see that your visit is as enjoyable as it possibly can be, that all the facilities you will need are available.  We hope this vendee tourist guide will help you find answers to question you may have, to enlighten you on aspects of the region you may not of known and be a guide on your journey around this fascinating corner of France.