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 it. The huge Atlantic coastline is virtually all beaches, and what spectacular beaches it supports most of which have fine sand sloping gently to the sea. The "Côte de Lumière", as the Vendéen coast named, has one of the sunniest climates in France, and this together with its beaches, have made it a 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 of the highest point in the Vendée 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, although there is an area of low cliffs and rocky outcrops from south of Les Sables d'Olonne to le Rocher near Longville. The beaches are often backed by sand dunes upon which have been planted pine trees to stabilise the shifting sands. 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-Sèvres 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, and in all it covers .05% of the land mass of France.

The Vendée does not possess any real cities and 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 at a leisurely pace. The people have their roots in a history of struggle and conflict and even the name Vendéen is quoted by Carl Marx to mean counter revolutionary. Throughout the Vendée there are reminders of life through the ages from Neolithic times, to the medieval and renaissance periods, and everywhere are the remains of the Vendéens’ fight to tame the land.

The Vendée and its people warmly welcomes its visitors and  every effort will be made to see that your visit is as enjoyable as it can possibly be, and that all the facilities you need will be available to you.  We hope this Vendée tourist guide will help you find answers to any questions you may have, we hope it will 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. Mostly we hope that this guide will help you to have a fantastic holiday.

The Vendee. There is so much to discover !