Take a holiday in the Vendee with it's wonderful beaches and long hours of sunshine.

The Vendee, we are sure you know, lies on the western coast of France, below Brittany in the north and the Charente Maritime in the south. It enjoys a superb summer climate and is extremely popular with Brits and the Irish who take camping and mobile home holidays there.

The Vendean beaches are mostly superb and some of them are great for surfing, such as the one near to Longeville, about 6 KM north of La Tranche, where people come from all over Europe to surf when the tides are right.

St Jean de Monts, just an hour's drive from Nantes airport, is one of the most popular Vendee holiday resorts, and this town boasts long stretches of golden sand, ideal for swimmers of any age or capability. There is often a breeze from the sea which allows for watersports like kite surfing, indeed, the Kite-surfing World Cup at Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, just a few KM down the coast.

La Tranche sur Mer is another major Vendee holiday resort - a bright and lively town with an avenue type road approach bedecked with flowers in the central reservation, on lamp posts and on traffic islands, all making a wonderful sight well worth a photo or two. La Tranche, like St Jean de Monts, is a bustling town in season with well stocked shops, street side restaurants and cafes.

Both the above towns are internationally known but there are masses and masses of smaller towns and villages where you can have an equally good holiday in the Vendee: St Gilles Croix, St Hilaire, around les Sables d'Olonne to the south of the region, Jard sur Mer, Brem sur Mer, the list goes on and on.

Getting to the Vendee for your holiday by car is easy, and we suggest that you use the ferry to either Caen or St Malo to cut down on driving time. Just to give you an idea of driving times, the distance from St Malo to St Jean de Monts in miles is 175 or thereabouts and it takes roughly just over 3 hours, and about the same to La Tranche as well even though it is a tad further south.