Around La Rochelle

Île de Ré

Île de Ré is 30 km long and only about 5 km wide, with ten communes, from Rivedoux-Plage in the east to Les Portes-en-Ré in the west. Since 1988 it has been linked to La Rochelle by a toll bridge 2,926 m long. Salt marshes reclaimed from the sea, oyster beds and a network of cycle tracks shape the island; its donkeys, once used in the salt harvest, still wear their famous “trousers”.

Its main town, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, was fortified by Vauban from 1681; since 2008 its citadel and walls have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list with eleven other Fortifications of Vauban. It was here that the Duke of Buckingham’s English army landed in 1627 to relieve besieged La Rochelle, and was driven back after three months.

Île de Ré day trips and boat tours on GetYourGuide →

Fort Boyard

Built on a sandbank between Île d’Aix and Île d’Oléron, Fort Boyard was meant to close the gap between the coastal batteries and protect the arsenal of Rochefort. Construction began in 1801, was suspended in 1809, resumed in 1837 and was finished in 1857 — by which time the longer range of modern artillery had made it useless. The oval fort is 68 m long, 31 m wide, with walls 20 m high.

Briefly a military prison after 1871, it was abandoned in 1913. In 1988 it passed to the Charente-Maritime department, and since 1990 it has been the setting of the Fort Boyard TV game show. The fort is not open to the public: it is seen from the excursion boats that sail around it from La Rochelle.

Fort Boyard cruises on GetYourGuide →

Île d'Aix

Tiny Île d’Aix covers just 1.19 km² and has 186 inhabitants (2023). Cars are banned, apart from service vehicles: visitors walk, cycle or take a horse-drawn carriage. Napoleon spent his last days in France here, from 12 to 15 July 1815, before surrendering to the British ship HMS Bellerophon.

The house he had built for the island’s commander after his visit in 1808 is now the Napoleon Museum. The island also has Fort Liédot, begun in 1811 on Napoleon’s orders to defend the Pertuis d’Antioche and the port of Rochefort.

Île d'Oléron

With 174 km², Île d’Oléron is the largest island of metropolitan France after Corsica. A bridge of about 3 km, opened on 21 June 1966, links it to the mainland; it has been toll-free since 1991.

From La Rochelle, the island can also be reached by sea: some of the excursion boats leaving the Old Port sail to Oléron.

Corderie Royale, Rochefort

When Rochefort was founded in 1666, the Royal Ropeworks were among its first buildings: a single building more than 374 m long, designed by François Blondel, where the rigging of the French navy was made for nearly two centuries — the longest cables measured about 200 m. Rope-making ended in 1867, and the closure of the Rochefort arsenal was decided in 1926.

Set on fire by the retreating German troops in August 1944, the building was cleared from 1964, listed as a historic monument in 1967 and restored between 1976 and 1988. It houses the Centre International de la Mer, whose rope-making exhibition was renewed in 2017.

Châtelaillon-Plage

Just south of La Rochelle, Châtelaillon-Plage (6,653 inhabitants in 2023) is a seaside resort that grew up after the railway arrived at the end of the 19th century, with a large sandy beach.

It was once La Rochelle’s rival: in 1130 Duke William X of Aquitaine defeated the lord of Châtelaillon and destroyed his harbour, opening the way for the rise of La Rochelle.

Sources: Wikipedia (Île de Ré) · Wikipedia (Île de Ré bridge) · Wikipedia (Fort Boyard) · Wikipedia (Île-d’Aix) · techno-science.net (Île d’Oléron) · Wikipedia (Corderie Royale) · Wikipedia (Châtelaillon-Plage) · Wikipedia (La Rochelle) · guide-charente-maritime.com (boats). Bridge tolls and boat timetables change with the seasons and were not checked. Checked 14 October 2026.