La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle
Cognac
Cognac
Nantes
Marais Poitevin
Rochefort
Saintes
The glorious Atlantic port of La Rochelle
Rochefort & La Corderie Royal
The pilgrimage town of Saintes
Cognac – with a tasting!
Historic Nantes
The Atlantic coastal Vendée region straddles the Loire and Poitou regions and offers a wealth of sights for the visitor, with glorious ports, historic cities, maritime heritage, cognac and wine, yet is largely by-passed in the annual rush to the coastal resorts further south. Highlights of this superb tour include the impressive port of La Rochelle Ile de Re, our base, the pretty town of Fontenay-Le-Comte, Saintes, Cognac, the historic shipyard town of Rochefort and Nantes - a heady mix to delight any visitor.
Available Departures |
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| 17 - September - 2025 | £ 1799.00 | Travel Info Book Now |
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Provisional Timings St Pancras Departing: 17th September 2025 at 09:24 Returning: 23rd September 2025 at 14:43 |
Day 1: Travel by Eurostar and TGV from St Pancras to Niort via Paris.
Transfer by coach to the hotel. This evening enjoy a welcome drink at the hotel before dinner.
Day 2: Full day tour to La Rochelle Ile de Re.
The glory of the busy port of La Rochelle is its old harbour, surrounded by stately buildings and now the largest yachting centre on the French Atlantic coast. Sights here include the twin towers that guard the harbour – the Tour de la Chaine and Tour St-Nicolas, 16th century Hotel de Ville, 15th century Tour de la Lanterne that offers wonderful views from its summit and several interesting museums of natural history and emigration. Also worth a visit is the huge aquarium as is the delightful collection of perfume bottles at the Musée du Flacon a Parfum on Rue du Temple.
Day 3: Morning free in Fontenay-le-Comte on market day, afternoon boat trip and wine tasting.
Morning visit to the pretty town of Fontenay-le-Comte on market day. Often referred to as the prettiest town in the Vendée, Fontenay-le-Comte is listed as one of the “Plus Beau detours de France.” Sitting astride the River Vendée, the former port was a fording town on the old Roman coastal road, but now miles inland thanks to the silting and draining of the marshland by the Benedictine monks. Market day is the perfect time to soak up the local atmosphere as well as exploring the sights including the castle ruins, two chateaux and an imposing cathedral. Afternoon visit to the Marais Poitevin waterways and a trip on a flat-bottomed boat (8-10 people per boat). The marshlands are the second largest in France after the Camargue and offer a beautiful natural setting in which to relax in a small boat and let the world drift by. We finish the day with a wine tasting at a local winery.
Day 4: Full day tour to Saintes and Cognac with tasting.
Saintes has a rich architectural heritage, thanks to its position on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Sights here include the Roman Arch of Germanicus, Roman amphitheatre, Abbaye aux Dames and 15th century Eglise St-Eutrope. The port of Cognac on the River Charente has become synonymous with its famous export – the spirit that shares its name. With a museum dedicated to the art of Cognac production and numerous producers offering tours and tastings, you might think that that is all the town has to offer, however it also boasts an attractive old town as well as a host of excellent restaurants. Having said that, no trip here is complete without a cognac tasting – one is included as part of the tour.
Day 5: Full day tour to Rochefort with visit to the Corderie Royale and Musee de la Marine.
The historic rival to La Rochelle, Rochefort was purpose built by Colbert in the 17th century to be the greatest shipyard in France, producing over 300 sailing vessels each year. Its maritime heritage can be seen in the beautiful Corderie Royale that houses an exhibition on ropemaking and the Musée de la Marine that displays models of the ships built here. The town is also famed as the birthplace of flamboyant French writer Pierre Lotti whose extravagant house is open to the public. The afternoon is free for personal exploration.
Day 6: Full day tour to Nantes.
A fascinating town of great architectural vartiety from its medieval core through Art Nouveau squares to high-tech towers. Once vying with Rennes as capital of Brittany, Nantes remains essentially Breton at heart, though now the capital of the Pays-de-Loire region. Sights include the Cathedrale St-Pierre-et-St-Paul and the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne, where the Edict of Nantes was signed by Henri IV in 1598.
Day 7: Transfer to station for TGV and Eurostar to St Pancras via Paris.
NB: Exact order of itinerary may vary according to local conditions and tour manager's discretion.
Please note the maximum group size on this tour is 35 passengers.
INCLUDED
NOT INCLUDED
PLEASE NOTE: As with most trains, passengers are responsible for carrying baggage onto and off the train. Baggage can be stored on overhead shelves or at the entrance to the carriages.Trollies are available at St Pancras and Paris, but bags do need to be carried on to the platform.
Travel Editions recommends a luggage delivery service called thebaggageman, where your suitcase can be picked up from your home before departure and delivered straight to your hotel; therefore removing the worry about carrying your cases onto and off the trains. Please click here for more information and we have arranged a 10% discount exclusive to Travel Editions clients off the thebaggageman service. Tel: 01844 264890
Hotel Le Rabelais, Fontenay-le-Comte
The Hotel Le Rabelais is situated in the centre of the pretty town of Fontenay-le-Comte on the banks of the Vendée. Facilties at this well-appointed and well-run three-star hotel include a well-regarded restaurant, swimming pool (open May - September), gym, spa with sauna and comfortable bedrooms with all modern facilities including en-suite bathoom, TV, telephone, free wifi and air-conditioning.
Hotel Website link
Review by Anonymous who travelled 02-September-2024
Very good tour overall. Minor niggles-market day Wednesday in Fontenay didn't amount to much. Would have liked more time in Saintes. Two hour walking tour of La Rochelle was maybe too long, given the need to find lunch afterwards. On the Saturday we visited Nantes it was very busy-might be better on a weekday. Hotel food-starters and sweets were very good, main courses less so. Staff kept breakfast well supplied even when very busy. Karen combined efficiency with a light touch and inspired confidence.
Review by Hillier who travelled 02-September-2024
Review by Anonymous who travelled 02-September-2024
I had wanted to have a look at this part of France for some time and this tour was a good way of doing it. Fontenay is small but the hotel was great - comfortable rooms, lovely restaurant, good bar and excellent staff. The trips involved a lot of coach travel but it was worth it - and I enjoy travelling through the countryside. Karen (leader) was attentive and knowledgeable.
Review by Anonymous who travelled 02-September-2024
Excellent trip. We had some wonderful visits arranged with plenty of spare time to do our own thing. Our tour manager was very informative about the locations we visited and handled problems she experienced very professionally. My only criticism of the trip would be that the day spent in Fontenay le. Comte would better arranged for the weekend market day as there was little to do in the mid week day we went there.
Review by Hammond who travelled 02-September-2024
Review by Cook who travelled 02-September-2024
Review by Anonymous who travelled 07-September-2022
A good overall enjoyable trip.
Review by Davies who travelled 07-September-2022
We cannot praise the tour manager, Helene, enough. She was always cheerful, ready to help and an excellent 'shepherd' of the flock. Overall, we enjoyed this short break. However, we have a couple of thoughts to give you on it. The hotel was a very nice hotel, and we had a comfortable room and enjoyed using the swimming pool. However, we found the food, excellent in its way, rather too 'presented' for every day eating. We realise that Fontenay did not offer many other places to eat in the evening, so half board was a good option, but we longed for some normal green vegetables or salad. We wondered whether basing the tour in La Rochelle might avoid this problem, and could be just B&B with the opportunity to find more variety in evening eating. This leads on to our next thought. The visit to La Rochelle was excellent, but rather rushed. If based there, people could visit Ile de Re if they wished - the bus trip there to St Martin did give a flavour of the island but was a long bus ride for relatively little return. Starting from La Rochelle might also make the day to Saintes and Cognac not quite so long. We enjoyed the wine tasting but the visit to the Cognac producer was less so, simply because for the price there is less variety in the wine tasted. We realise that some bits of the tour had to be rescheduled and this might have impacted on the length of time given to each place, but Helene explained to us and we were aware that things may not have been exactly as wished. But overall, an enjoyable outing.
Review by Eccles who travelled 07-September-2022
The hotel, whilst excellent, was just too far away from most of the places we visited resulting in long coach journeys at the beginning and end of each trip which cut down the amount of time available for the main event of each day. We did appreciate the historical tour of the chateau at Cognac but it was too long and the tasting not worthwhile. Because of the length of the chateau tour/tasting we did not see anything of Cognac itself which given the long effusive write up in the tour notes was worth exploring. Few people on the trip seemed to really enjoy the chateau tour/tasting and most would have preferred to have seen Cognac itself. The best trip was to the rope making tour which everyone enjoyed and we found most interesting.
Review by Clarke who travelled 07-September-2022
