CÔTE OF MANY COLOURS
WHIZZING through fields of golden sunflowers and along poker-straight lanes flanked with poplar trees, the drive to the Côte de Beauté, in France’s Charente-maritime region, is just glorious.
With the windows wound down, we hear the birds singing and feel the rush of the warm breeze as we snake past dainty cottages with blue painted shutters and terracotta roofs.
This area, just north of Bordeaux, is not called the “beautiful coast” for nothing. There are modern marinas and ancient forests to explore, medieval towns and lively resorts. Miles of sandy beaches, wild dunes and somewhere a little bit retro – if you like stepping back in time, but not too far.
Fresh from our overnight crossing with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to St Malo, we were off the ship by 8am and managed the 244mile journey in super-quick time, arriving at La Palmyre Loisirs campsite in Palmyre, well before check-in at 3pm.
Close to superb beaches and interesting coastal towns, it’s a restful place to spend summer days sightseeing and soaking up the sunshine. We were self-catering with Eurocamp in a smart three-bedroom Azure caravan positioned on a high ridge among mature pines, so we had a good view of the campsite and a prime spot to watch the sun go down through the trees.
Ripping up the rulebook is the key to happiness with our kids in the hols. When they’re fed up with timetables, homework and school uniforms, Eurocamp enables youngsters to roam freely around the campsite on bikes or scooters in safety, laze about in their scruffs, let loose in the swimming pools and slides.
Going off on their own to the camp shop for sweets, baguettes, croissants and souvenirs becomes an adventure. Suddenly ‘old’ classics such as pinball, Space Invaders and air hockey – staples in the games rooms of European campsites – are the coolest things ever. And there are no TVS in the caravans, so they won’t be glued to the box.
Wi-fi is available but sketchy, so screen time isn’t a given. If they’re missing their friends, there are organised activities such as circus skills, arts and crafts and sports on site. But it’s the swimming pool complex here that’s the real highlight. There’s a lazy river loop with partially submerged jacuzzi loungers and a large whirlpool, as well as an indoor pool, splash pad area for little ones, racing slides and a curly water chute that is not completely out-of-control terrifying.
With loads of loungers to go around, as well as a wooden sloped area for sunbathing, there is no daily dawn stampede to bag a sunbed.
Evening entertainment, centred around an outdoor stage and seating area by the bar and restaurant, is good quality and varied.
We had an absolute scream at the neon party, which began with camp reps applying colourful make-up and hairspray to anyone who wanted to look the part, followed by a mad disco with Europop classics, party dances, smoke and UV lights.
If you happen to be there in a heatwave like we were, head for the giant beach of La Tremblade, on the wild coast with its wind and waves. The sand is squeaky, there’s a lively bit of surf, but beware of the sandbars and the currents. Park for free in the shade of the pine forest behind the beach or spill out onto the side of the road if it’s full.
Cycling is big in Palmyre too. There are dedicated lanes on main roads or pavements are split between pedestrians and cyclists, keeping everyone safe. You can hire bikes from the camp.
One day we took a short drive down the coast to Royan, the capital of the Côte de Beauté. This retrofest of Brutalist buildings and lines of shops built in the 1950s (the town was mostly bombed in the Second World War, so had to be rebuilt) is beautifully maintained with everything freshly painted in dazzling white and deckchair blue.
Rows of restaurants in front of the shopping parade continue the vintage style, with curved plastic tables and chunky school dinners-style water glasses. After a stroll around the marina full of yachts, we slurped raspberry sorbets from Lina Délices ice-cream shop while weaving through the side streets to the town’s Notre-dame de Royan church.
This is not your average stonecarved, steepled number. It’s more of a take-a-look, check map and ask yourself, “Have I taken a wrong turn and ended up in eastern Europe, on the site of a disused power station
or some experimental building to solve a housing crisis?” kinda place.
Constructed entirely of rough concrete, making it a gloomy shade of roasting tin grey, it replaced a neo-gothic church dating back to 1874, which was bombed. As you go inside, you will be dwarfed by its 24 imposing V-shaped pillars, abstract stained glass windows and giant organ made up of 3,600 pipes.
This place is serious, startling, a bit spooky, but also very much loved. In 1988 it was classified as a historical monument and labelled Monument of the 20th Century in 2004!
We also took a drive up to La Rochelle, that handsome port city etched in the memory of British Gen Xers like me, thanks to GCSE French textbooks in the 1980s.
Its landmark towers, Tour Saint Nicolas and Tour de la Chaine, form the majestic gateway to the Vieux Port and for 10 centuries were the key defensive bastions to the city. There are bars with outdoor tables placed all around the harbour – ideal for a plate of oysters with a glass of the region’s famous tipple, Pineau des Charentes, which is an aperitif liqueur blended from white wine and cognac.
But if you want to eat with the locals head to rue St-jean-du-perot, known as the food street of La Rochelle. The state-of-the-art aquarium is one of the best in France. Visitors descend to the ‘ocean floor’ in a clunky old submarine to view its 12,000 marine animals.
If you get time, visit Île d’oléron, France’s largest island after Corsica. Accessed by a road bridge, this sleepy haven has buckets of appeal with colourful fisherman’s houses, oyster farms, a fortress and a lighthouse, as well as beautiful beaches. A little further north is Île de Ré, which, although hugely popular with Parisians in summer, has managed to retain its rustic feel, with elegantly weathered buildings.
The true symbols of this island, however, are its Poitou donkeys, which are the biggest trend-setters of all, wearing stripy pyjamas.
France never fails to deliver when it comes to summer holiday charm and the ‘beautiful coast’ has a tres bon bit of everything.
Ripping up the rulebook is the key to happiness with our kids in the hols