The
first thing to be noted about the Pays de la Loire region is
that this is not the main area for visiting the famous "Chateaux de la
Loire". They are further upstream.
The Pays de la Loire region is a recent
creation, not one of France's historic regions. Indeed, the regional
capital, Nantes, was once the capital of Brittany - to which it no
longer belongs. In historic terms, Pays de la Loire covers
parts of the old provinces of Brittany, Anjou, Maine and Poitou. This
region is almost certain to be broken up before 2014, when the
territorial administration of France is modernised.
The Pays de la Loire covers the area to
the south of Brittany and Normandy, along the lower stretches of the
river Loire, the longest river in France.
The region is composed of five
departments, two of them coastal – the Loire Atlantique (44) and the
Vendée (85) – and three of them inland, the Mayenne (53), the Sarthe
(72) and the Maine et Loire (49).
Nantes (44), the
regional capital is the sixth largest city in France, with 270,000
inhabitants in the urban borough of Nantes, and an estimated 800,000
inhabitants in the urban area as of 2008. It is located on the Loire,
50 km inland, and is the largest economic hub in the north west of
France. In the eighteenth century, Nantes (like Bristol) was a
flourishing seaport, indeed the most important seaport in France; the
city acquired great wealth at that time, wealth which is reflected to
this day in its urban heritage. Today, most of the shipping activity
has moved to the mouth of the Loire, to the port of
Saint Nazaire, which
is also one of the major ship-building cities in Europe. It was in the
Saint Nazaire dockyards that the new flagship of the Cunard
line, the world's largest passenger ship, the Queen Mary 2,
was built. A clear birds-eye view of the shipyards can be had from the
Pont de Saint Nazaire, the high road bridge that spans the Loire
estuary. (Originally a toll bridge, this bridge is now free to cross).
On the coast of the Loire Atlantique
department lie two of France's historic seaside resorts,
La Baule and
Le Croisic. The area
round Le Croisic is also famous for its salt pans, and "sel de
Guérande" is one of the best-known types of salt in France.
The town of
Guérande
is a delightful small ancient walled city, just inland from the salt
marshes.
South of the Loire Atlantique department
lies an area known as
Vendée.
The modern department (85) is much smaller than the historic
area that once carried this name. Vendée is famous in the history of
France as one of the old bastions of Protestantism; after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the end of religious
tolerance, tens of thousands of Vendéen protestants fled from this part
of France, and went to live in England, or America. Thus many people in
England can trace some of their ancestry back to this part of France.
After the French Revolution, Vendée was
a centre for the royalist counter-revolution.
The department is largely flat in the
northern coastal area, low-lying and gently undulating inland. The
capital, the city of
La
Roche sur Yon, is a small rural city in the middle of the
department. The coast is built up round the seaside resorts, notably
the fine beaches at
les
Sables d'Olonne, Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie and
St. Jean de Monts,
but elsewhere there are stretches of empty coastline. In
parts, a band of pine forests, planted on land that was once sand
dunes, protects the flat farmland behind from the Atlantic winds and
the sand - and protects it against flooding when Atlantic storms batter
the coastline.
Further inland, the department of
Maine et Loire (49)
covers a territory to the north and south of the Loire. This is the
heart of the region known as Anjou, and its capital
Angers is one of the
great historic cities in the Loire valley. Anjou was the fief of the
Angevines, who, with Henry II, became the kings of England. The great
castle of the counts of Anjou, in Angers, is one of the biggest
medieval fortresses in Europe.
The two remaining departments of this
region,
Sarthe
(72) and
Mayenne
(53) form the rest of the old provinces
of Anjou and Maine, and border on Normandy. Rural departments, and
strongly agricultural, they both have more in common with
Normandy than they do with Vendée. Half the population of the
department of the Sarthe lives in the urban area round the capital,
Le Mans, famous for
its annual motor race. Apart from that, the Sarthe is deeply rural. La
Flèche, an attractive small town on the river Loir (without an -e !)
boasts one of the best and oldest zoos in France, coverning some 30
acres.
Laval,
capital of the Mayenne, is a small city with a historic centre. The
city is located on the banks of the river Mayenne, which crosses the
department from north to south, a navigable waterway with opportunities
for boat hire, and 85 km of towpath idel for cyclists and hikers. The
department of the Mayenne also boasts the highest point in the
northwest quarter of France, the summit of the Mont des Avaloirs, at
417 metres, about 1350 ft.
Access:
by train (TGV) from Paris Gare
Montparnasse. Access by car from the UK, via any of the Channel ports,
from Roscoff (Brittany) to Calais.
Main
tourist attractions in
Pays de la Loire
The old quarter in Nantes, the regional capital: almost Parisian.
Les Sables d'Olonne - seaside resort in Vendée. |
- Nantes
(44), Regional capital; Nantes is a big city, with a historic centre;
it offers plenty of opportunities for shopping and urban tourism.
attractions include river boats on the Erdre river, a tributary of the
Loire.
- Les
Sables d'Olonne: (85) One of the most famous seaside
resorts on the west coast. the Vendée Globe
round-the-world yacht race starts here.
- Guérande
(44), just inland from the coast, to the north of the Loire, Guérande
is a small walled city, with a historic centre.
- La
Baule (44) - One of the more famous French seaside resorts
- famous since the nineteenth century .
- Le Puy du Fou
 theme park (85) One of the most popular theme parks in
France, famous for its historic reenactments (daily in summer). - Planete
Sauvage, south west of Nantes. A large wildlife park (over 250 acres) , with
safari tours. Over 2,000 animals in semi liberty.
- The
river Loire (44 / 49) The wide slow-moving Loire
is one of Europe's great rivers. The river, excellent for
fishing, is bordered by many attractive small towns, and the
flat land is good for cycling.
- Rivers
Maine, Mayenne and Sarthe: (49, 53, 72) riverboat cruising
(cabin cruisers), from several boat hire bases.
- Le
Mans (72) - Famous for its annual 24 hour motor endurance
race
- La
Flèche (72) : Zoo de la Flèche, one of the five major zoos
in France
- Angers
(49) Historic city, with one of the biggest and finest mediaeval
castles in France.
- Laval
(53). Old city with some
interesting and unusual monuments, and the unique Lactopole, a
museum of the milk, cheese and dairy industry
|
Going
further:
