Travel Guide Ile de Noirmoutier

An island in the Bay of Biscay, Noirmoutier alternates between dunes and holm oaks, pine forests and coves, and can be enjoyed by bike or with your feet in the water, fishing before enjoying a crêpe or a fish dish, and then returning to the beach. You can visit the salt marshes, the Noirmoutier castle-museum and the medieval garden of Barbâtre, the Sealand Aquarium, the butterfly island and the house of locks and traditional fishing. Children particularly enjoy a ride on the island'shippobus, a public transport service in a flower-decked wagon driven by two draught horses (in summer). Tourism is the destination's main economic activity, with a large number of accommodations, restaurants and charming boutiques. The Estacade, the island's emblematic boat landing stage built in 1889, played a major role in the development of seaside tourism in the early ^20th century. It was here that people disembarked for their holidays, bringing their trunks and staff with them. Maritime activity represents the other branch of the local economy, with three harbours: Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, the traditional harbour now occupied by pleasure boaters; L'Herbaudière, a modern deep-water fishing harbour, with its fish market and pleasure boaters; and L'Épine, the former Morin harbour, a beaching harbour now used for pleasure boating. Oyster and fish farming also thrive here. Among the many films shot on this island, which has also inspired painters and writers, are Agnès Varda's Les Plages and Arnaud Desplechin's Les Fantômes d'Ismaël. Take your guide with you!