Les Sables-d’Olonne – Introduction

Les Sables-d’Olonne is a seaside town with a healthy tourist industry, but they are far more known for being the start/finish point of the grueling solo round-the-world sail race with no stops; the Vendee Globe. The race is held every 4 years.

The city with its 45,000 inhabitants is divided into two areas, the old and low build city and the more high rise and modern beach front. The city itself was founded in the year 1218.

The sea plays a very important part of the city. Signs are everywhere that you are in a large port city:

The Buildings

We’ll not be looking at the high rise part but more the older part of the city. The houses are all low buildings, one or two floors, many of them with restaurants or small hotels.

The biggest and most visible building in the older area is the castle:

Click here to read more about the Castle Saint-Clair

Saint Nicolas church

Quite close to this castle/fort, there’s a church (there would be of course). The church is called the Saint Nicolas church (Eglise Saint Nicolas) and the church is dedicated to the fishermen.

Mural Paintings

But it’s not the church that caught our attention. It’s the square the church is on. There, you will find several very well done mural decorations, some quite difficult to distinguish from reality. They reminded us of the many mural decorations in Lyon (click here to see the Lyon ones). Just look at the first photo above, you’ll be able to see the paintings on the right.

Streets

The streets in the older part of the city are very, very narrow!!! Alongside the water they are fine, but if you need to go to a hotel one or two streets up, you’ll need to have a very small car to be able to do it:

Les Sables-d’Olonne are dominated by water (outside the city you’ll find massive marshes that can be hiked).

There are three main harbours in the city;

1. Fishing harbour
   
   
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2. Industrial harbour (shipbuilding etc)
   
   
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3. A massive pleasure boat harbour (where the Vendee Globe sails from)
   
   
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But do watch it, they take unwanted visitors very serious…

… sorry, just joking… this is a Moroccan patrol vessels on a port call. They were just cleaning the guns.

To make it easier and faster to go between sections of the large harbours, they have a regular boat shuttle service, a bus boat/ferry:

At the Water Edge

When you travel towards the edge of the water, at the harbours entry, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Once at the end, you’ll find a very long pier…

The Harbour Lighthouses

… at the end of the pier, you’ll find two lighthouses….. the left one at the harbour entrance

…. and the right one…

There is also a long seawall from the right most lighthouse to the land.

As you may notice from the above photo, the smallest bit of wind will whip up the waves onto the seawall, and not only there….

….. the waves often hit the lighthouse, even when there’s no storm. You’ll find plenty of signs around the lighthouse warning you about rogue waves hitting the area, and you’ll see that it’s almost always wet there.

WARNING: I can not warn you enough about these waves, since it caught me by surprise. A windless and sunny day, I ventured to the edge, and was nearly thrown into the sea by one of these waves. My cameras was pretty much ruined, as were my car keys.

Saint-Nicolas Priory

Built close to the seawall and lighthouse, you’ll find the Saint-Nicolas Priory:

The priory was built in the 11th century, and after being pillaged several times over the centuries, in the 18th century it became part of a fortress.

On the property you will find 7 18th century cannons.

The place is open all year and can be visited.

Conclusion

Les Sables-d’Olonne is a nice place to visit even if you are not into sailing. There are several castles and other monuments to see, the lighthouses are pretty and photogenic and the older part of the city deserves a walkaround.

Outside of the city you will find the “wild” marshes, dunes and beaches.

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