Only west wide 19 and it miles may three be, east-tomiles but you could spend days cycling among Île de Ré’s beaches, salt pans, vineyards and smallholdings without retracing your tyretracks. Sparse and unspoilt, albeit with fashionable pockets, it’s a destination beloved of Parisians, who enjoy their Atlantic coast rusticity with a side order of chic. Until a bridge to the mainland was completed in 1988, the island was known as a day-trip destination with fine 17th-century fortifications and excellent oysters; now its towns and their beaches bustle from April to November. If tourism has taken off, development has not - in fact, a fun holiday challenge would be to spot anything - a lean-to, a view, even a donkey - that is not delightfully picturesque. Exploring by bike, and fitting in some surfing or horse-riding, are terrific groundwork for long lunches, picnics and sunset drinks.
Windswept dunes on the beach at Rivedoux-Plage
PHOTOGRAPHS: PHILIP LEE HARVEY/LONELY PLANET
Ditch your suit case
With breakfast tables amid roses, figs and wisteria in a quiet courtyard garden, La Maison Douce is a peaceful former convent close to the port. Its 14 rooms and suites feature painted wood in soft greys and greens, and wafting cotton voile (from £130; lamaisondouce.com). Suitably grand but not remotely flashy, Hotel La Baronnie is an antique-filled hotel particulier once bought for Marie-Antoinette by Louis XVI. The 22 rooms mix French and Asian textiles and art, and there's a dainty pool in the barn-like spa (from £190;hotel-labaronnie.comhttp://labaronnie.com;). By the church square in Ars-en-Re, hidden behind austere walls, are the arty, sparsely furnished rambling rooms of Hotel Le Senechal, with wooden floors, stone walls and. It has sitting rooms and flower-filled courtyards for lounging, as well as a diminutive dipping pool (from £65;hotel-le-senechal.comhttp://hotel-le-senechal.com;).
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February 2019
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