7 KM OF FINE SAND

Up until the mid-1990s, you had to know how to swim before learning to sail. Kids could only take their first Optimist lessons around the age of 7 or 8. But what about the younger ones? In 1995, the sailing school in Barbâtre decided to create a Ship’s Apprentice Club open to children ages 5 and up. “Parents often come with the whole family to enrol their older kids in Optimist sailing classes, but you can see that their little brothers and sisters want to stay too. So the idea is to help them to discover the sea and give them a taste for sailing, but gently, without frightening them”, explains a former sailing instructor. Depending on the weather, classes typically last three hours, alternating between exploring the foreshore, fishing, excursions at sea, ropework, drawing flags, and more. “Each activity has an educational purpose, although the main goal is for the kids to have safe fun.” Candice and Alice, young instructors who themselves went through the Ship’s Apprentice Club, would certainly agree. Now 24 and 21 years old, they have maintained their sense of childhood wonder. “I teach like I was taught. I loved the Ship’s Apprentice Club so much”, explains Candice, an instructor for six seasons now. “I discovered it with my sister and my cousins when I was 5. We came back every year after that. We’ve even been renting the same house in Barbâtre for 17 years.”

On Noirmoutier Island, the forests are never far from the ocean, inviting you on beautiful and invigorating walks. In Barbâtre and La Guérinière, the scent of the maritime pines often intermingles with the smell of the sea spray. Barbâtre Forest, planted with large maritime pines, runs along the beach, combining a view of the sea with the pleasant aromas of undergrowth. Beyond La Guérinière, the Bois des Eloux wood also offers a place for a peaceful, restorative ramble. Growing out of the highest point on the island at an elevation of 23 metres, this small wood presents an uneven face of truly rolling dunes.