Les Sables-d'Olonne is a mecca for sailing and yachting, and the starting point for the legendary Vendée Globe. It offers a privileged natural setting, with marshes, dunes, forests and superb beaches. Les Sables-d'Olonne is renowned for its fine sandy beaches, picturesque landscapes, dunes, marshes and the Olonne forest. Since 2019, the communes of Château-d'Olonne and Olonne-sur-Mer have joined Les Sables-d'Olonne to form the larger Les Sables-d'Olonne. In Château-d'Olonne, the coastline stretches from the small beach of Tanchet to the rugged Cayola Bay. Between the corniche and the rocky coast, discover a curiosity: the Puits d'Enfer, where the water rushes in violently on high tide days. There's plenty of evidence that Olonne-sur-Mer is the historic cradle of the Pays des Olonnes: menhirs (Pierre-Levée), traces of the first salt marshes, vines planted by the Romans and destroyed during the Norman invasion, the thousand-year-old Olonne church and the Cordeliers convent, where Rabelais stayed around 1510. Olonne-sur-Mer is also the green lung of the Pays des Olonnes, with over 8 km of natural beaches bordered by dunes and a national forest. The Olonne-sur-Mer marshes are a veritable nature reserve, where protected species and salt marshes coexist. But let's go back in history... The Olonnes region has been occupied since prehistoric times. It was in the Middle Ages, thanks to Savary de Mauléon, then Prince of Talmont, that the town really began to take shape. Its development accelerated in the 15th century with the silting-up of Talmont harbor. As a result, Louis XI himself took charge of the commercial and administrative organization of Les Sables-d'Olonne, granting it important franchises. The port of Les Sables became known for its salt and wine trade. In the 17th century, the inhabitants set off to fish cod on the banks of Newfoundland. The town became the leading cod fishing port in the kingdom, a development that was slowed down by the Wars of Religion: the town remained Catholic, while the commune of La Chaume, opposite, became Protestant. During the French Revolution, Les Sables-d'Olonne remained on the Republican side. The arrival of the railroad in 1866 marked the beginning of tourism! From 1936 onwards, when paid vacations were introduced, the seaside resort enjoyed a boom. Today, the town benefits from the fame of the Vendée Globe, a non-stop, non-assisted round-the-world race.

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