Fête du Travaille! May 1st is a public holiday and today we went to the island Noirmoutier. Sébastien, like everyone else, had the day off work. The weather was fine to visit the island. If it was bad we might not have gone there. This island is well known for its potatoes. We saw many fields. When Sébastien came to my house, he brought with him some Noirmoutier potatoes in brine. So everyone else was visiting the island, mainly from Nantes (many car plates with 44 were seen). At lunch we had the Vendéen speciality, jambon with beurre blanc (a dish with white beans). There is a free bus around the island which is good because so many people were there. We went to take the bus to the Plage des Dames, walked around the headland then walked all along the beach to get to Le Grand Vieil for taking the bus back to the carpark. We passed the beaches L'Anse Rouge, Plage des Souzeaux, Plage de la Clère, the tower Tour Plantier and saw the small island Rocher du Cob. There were some very nice (and expensive) houses along this coast.

While waiting for the bus back to the town, I found a squat toilet. I would not have expected to see such a thing in Western Europe. Very strange to see that I thought. On the way back to the mainland, Sébastien took us to the original road to get to the island, Le Passage du Gois. This is a very interesting place, because you can only cross this road at low tide. As far as the eye can see, the road to the mainland looks like a huge lake. It isn't obvious that this was the main road into Noirmoutier for centuries.

On the way back to Brem, we stopped to see the traditional type of housing used in the area, but the sited had closed for the day. Then I took some time photographing the St. Nicolas church (11th century). It looks rather sad with its two sides in ruins, but it makes it more interesting I suppose.