THE STING BAY

It's one of the symbolic landscapes of the Charente-Maritime and Vendée regions. These 5,000 hectares of fertile mudflats and salt meadows conjure up an image of what the Marais Poitevin was in Roman times: an immense marine gulf of almost 100,000 ha subject to silting. Today, the Bay is organized around four main landscapes: mudflats, the banks of the Sèvre Niortaise, dunes and pebble beaches. Take a stroll and observe some of the bird species that settle here in winter - particularly at Pointe Saint-Clément.