Photo : Bourrichon - fr:Bourrichon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
L' Ile d'Yeu
The Île d'Yeu is an Atlantic island off the Vendée, which alone forms the commune of L'Île-d'Yeu and the canton of the same name, in the Pays de la Loire region. It is among the Ponant islands and is reached by boat from the mainland, the main port being Port-Joinville.
The coast has two faces: a sheltered north-east side, with dunes and sand beaches, and a rocky south-west coast, the Côte Sauvage, which you follow on foot, notably to the Port de la Meule and the Pierre Tremblante. At the Pointe du But, in the west, reefs have caused many shipwrecks. The great lighthouse, a white tower 38 metres high, overlooks the island's interior.
The Vieux-Château, a fourteenth-century fortress built on a rocky spur, is visited by a drawbridge. You go round the island on foot or by bicycle.
