Explore the beautiful region of Vendée
Why do we go on a naturist vacation? To spend at least some of our time without clothes,obviously. For some, this is the one and only reason. Getting away from the world in somenatural paradise where the clothing rules that society forces upon us are completely non-existing. But if you are like us, there’s more to a vacation than spending days in a rownaked next to the pool. Most often, when we visit a naturist campsite, we also want toexplore parts of the region. Get to know the culture, go hiking in nature, those kinds ofthings.
Although not always. Honestly, when we visited Le Colombier at the end of our little touraround western France, we were actually looking forward to a couple of days of doing littlemore than nothing. Our next stop would be Belgium, our home country, and we knew thata couple of busy weeks were ahead of us, as we hadn’t seen our friends and family formore than a year and a half.
Our plans easily change though. After a day of lazing in the sun, skinny dipping in the pool,walking through the forest, and drinking wine on the terrace, we found ourselves googlingthe region of Le Colombier. We had never been to the Vendee before. As far as we couldremember, we don’t think that we had ever heard about it either. The region somehow gota bit lost between its popular southern neighbors like Gironde and Dordogne, and theBrittany province in the north. At least to unprepared travelers like ourselves.
Little did we know that the historical theme park Puy du Fou, which has been nominatedas the best theme park in the world and yearly attracts more than 2 million visitors, waswithin reach of the campsite. Unfortunately, we were much too late to get tickets for one ofthe next days. The coastal temperatures started dropping, so a visit to one of the region’snude beaches didn’t sound like a smart option either. Instead, we decided to haveourselves a little tour in the near environment of Le Colombier.
Our day trip started in the polder landscape of the Marais de Poitevin. It has over 200kilometers of cycling routes, but given its nickname “The Green Venice”, we decided that aboat tour might be more accurate. Starting right next door to the ruins of the Saint Pierrede Maillezais abbey, a small boat company took us on a ride through the many canals,showing us the region truly from the inside.
After an abundance of nature, we made our way to the historical town Bazoges en Pareds,famous for its Donjon (a huge stone tower). The tower is impressive, but we found muchmore joy in the anthropologic museum. Definitely interesting, and unknowing that therewere going to be sound effects as well, definitely scary at first too.
We don’t think that you can explore a single part of France without trying its local wine, sothat was going to be our last stop for the day: A family wine business called DomaineCoirier, which personally produces everything from the grapes to the wood that is used tomake the barrels. And we can tell you, it tasted good! After visiting so many places aroundthe world, we often fear that it will become hard to impress us. Interestingly, it’s theselesser known and unexpected places that often impress us the most.
