The hamlet of La Baffardiere sits on a ridge overlooking vineyards above the steeply-wooded (river) valley of the River Yon Nature Reserve with its beautiful walks along the river’s edge. There is no through road and the whole area is therefore peaceful and free from passing traffic.

The ancient village of le Champ St Pere is only 3.5kms away, where you will find a “Shopi” supermarket with cheap fuel, a bakery, pharmacy, banks, a bar and a good restaurant with a market in the square on Thursday mornings. The sea to the north of La Tranche sur Mer is a maximum of twenty-five minutes away by car. This windsurfers’ paradise has a beach which stretches virtually uninterrupted for 30kms. Other unspoilt beaches include Bourgenay (good surfing), La Faute sur Mer, Longueville and St Vincent sur Jard to name but a few.

La Roche sur Yon, the capital of the Vendee, is a typically bustling town with lively cafes and bars, a university,”live” theatre, a variety of shops and a market in Les Halles from Tuesday to Saturday. For the equine-minded there is the Haras National (National Stud) open weekdays from the July to end August.

Equi-distant to the south is Lucon, the gateway to the Marais Poitevin. This vast labyrinth of canals, started in the 11th century to drain the land surrounding various abbeys, is one of the Vendee’s most enchanting areas with varied and sometimes eccentric wildlife centred upon the little town of Coulon and to the north on Maillezais with its massive ruined medieval abbey.

The Vendee is rich in golf courses of varying standards and in particular the 6500m Californian-style La Domangere with the longest 7th in France, close by just north of the village of Nesmy, which also hosts the most wonderful working pottery. At Port Bourgenay (about 30 mins) there is both a championship standard course and an 18 hole pitch and putt. (For more see our "Links" page)

There is riding nearby, boating on the Lac du Graon, freshwater fishing, sea-fishing from Sables d’Olonne, St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and round l’Ile de Noirmoutier. If you have a mountain bike then VTT trails abound with the GR364 long-distance path passing within 300m of the house. There is a great activity park at the Indian Forest (see links page), bungey-jumping, diving, go-karting, parachuting, and sand-yachting to exhaust the fittest and for the more sedate the surrounding area has an auto museum, floral parks, various historic chateaux, a pre-historic visitor centre at Avrille, aquariums, a zoo and it is even possible to visit a coal mine, now safely themed. (Details of these can be found through our Links page).

La Rochelle and the Ile de Re are under an hour away. Farther a field there is the theme park of the Puy-du-Fou, with its reconstructed 18th century village, jousts and "Son et Lumiere" and even the fabulous “Futurescope” at Poitiers. For horse-lovers, Saumur and the Cadre Noir is less than two hours away and the superb, but little-known wines of Anjou, to be bought direct from the producers, are easily reachable in a day trip.

The Vendee has a "micro-climate" with nearly as many hours of sunshine as Mediterranean Provence (nearly 2500hrs per year) but temperatures that are more bearable and generally around 26C (80F) in high summer so you can plan on spending most of the day outside and it seldom rains for any length of time.

Road communications are excellent, particularly to the coast. The people are friendly (really!) with a relaxed and disarmingly forthright approach to life, and provided you avoid the over-development of the area immediately behind the coastline you will seldom meet blatant tourist exploitation.

There is a wealth of information out on the net to study via our "Links" page and the outstanding English site is from Angela Bird where she goes into great detail and during the season generally highlights activities and events of interest.

We have found this an invaluable aid to planning and can give you real head start before you arrive in the area.

We try to provide you with up-to-date brochures and information at the house together with local knowledge on where to get the best bargains, or, of course, you can explore for yourselves.