THE BRETON MARSHES OF THE VENDÉE

From the air, the spectacle of the Breton Marshes of the Vendée is splendid! Straddling the Vendée and the Loire-Atlantique, a territory of 45,000 hectares of wetlands, between canals, wet meadows and polders, today labeled Ramsar (wetland of international importance), gathered under the identity Le Marô (marsh, in maraîchin)! Le Marô borders the Vendée coastline and the Baie de Bourgneuf, offering unique access to the Ile d'Yeu and the Ile de Noirmoutier. The Marô is spread over 18 communes, stretching from Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez to Moutiers-en-Retz (44), passing through Challans, including Sallertaine, Bois-de-Céné and Le Perrier, forming the heart of the Vendée Breton Marsh. Moreover, Bouin and Sallertaine are former islands now attached to the mainland; only the island of Noirmoutier is still surrounded by water. There are still four ports of call, including the very typical port of Bec, also known as the "Chinese port", recognizable by its wooden pontoons on stilts: a listed site that is a must see! On the commune of Beauvoir-sur-Mer, a former peninsula, along the "étiers", you will see the fisheries and their "carrelets". The Breton marshes of the Vendée are criss-crossed with "étiers", small channels through which the salt marshes and the sea communicate. It was the Benedictine monks from the 11th to the 13th century who carried out major works to gain land on the Bay of Bourgneuf. The Breton Marshes of the Vendée quickly became the largest salt producer in France, as salt was widely used for food preservation. Today, the Marô's salt production is concentrated mainly in Bouin and Beauvoir-sur-Mer. It is also an oyster farming area. The Marais is also a natural area with a rich and unique flora, including saltwort, and a rare fauna composed of a wide variety of migratory birds (black-tailed godwits, avocets, blue throats ...), but the étiers also host frogs and eels. In the past, the most common dwellings were the bourrines, with reed roofs, made of clay, straw and lime. There are still about a hundred of these market gardeners' houses. The Daviaud Ecomuseum is the perfect illustration of the Breton Marshes of the Vendée. When the marshes were just above water level, the market gardeners used a flat-bottomed boat to move around the marshes: the yole. In 2020, the Marô won the Palme du Tourisme Durable in the category "Territoire et Destination" for the best sustainable tourism initiative set up by a local authority.