The Ile de Re is an island located on the west coast of France. You access the island via a bridge from La Rochelle.
It costs 16 Euros to cross the bridge, but it is free to return!! The great thing is once your on the Island you won’t want to leave anyway, and even better you don’t need to use your car the entire time.
Bring bikes or hire bikes and you can cycle everywhere and its super safe with dedicated cycle paths all across the island!
On arrival to island make sure you pick up the cycle route map and then start your adventures. The amazing thing about this island is that it is small enough to cycle to anywhere you want, and all the main villages on the island are all connected by car free cycle paths.
The cycle map also tells you how long it will take between the villages so it’s easy to plan your day and work out how long it will take!
Saint Martin de Re
Saint Martin is to most people the ‘capital’ of the Island, it is probably the busiest and most popular town on the Island and also more expensive to stay here. The gorgeous harbour and cute bars and restaurants are picture perfect. Make sure you get a salted caramel waffle of ice cream from the famous La Martiniere.
La Flotte
We loved La Flotte, it is a smaller version of Saint Martin and has a gorgeous harbour surrounded by bars and restaurants. There is also an amazing daily morning market during peak times of year (Summer!).
Sainte Marie de Re
We stayed here and loved this village. It is in fact split into, the centre and La Noue, and we used to cycle to La Noue (the valley) to the bakery. Both parts have a market which is great! Personally we loved staying here as it was a little quieter but had so much going on! Also the beach here, Plage de la Basse Benaie is gorgeous and much quieter than other beaches.
Le Bois Plage en Re
We visited here on market day and it was heaving! The bars and restaurants were full of people drinking wine at 10am!!
La Courade sur Mer
This is another cute place with a central square and also an indoor market. We cycled here one morning for breakfast and enjoyed a coffee on the square.
Ars en Re
This is a pretty village and quite small. The main part of the village along the marina where there are a number of bars and restaurants.
Saint Clement des Baleines
This is town situated next to the famous lighthouse. We knew we wanted to cycle all the way to lighthouse and it was worth the trip. We ended up having a picnic here on the seafront, but there are plenty of eateries too. We had a delicious salted caramel ice cream from the famous La Martiniere.
This is our second time visiting this stunning island and its crazy to think its in France because its pure paradise. We highly recommend a visit here and we cannot wait to return!
