"Ancient history at Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie." Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie by Jerelis

It was a bit of a cloudy day and we sat at our campsite in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez. We decided to have a drive down south along the coastline. At some time we ended up at Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. The little village has quite some history dating back to the ninth century, when the monks of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard settled in what was then called Sidunum, a priory and a fortified church. In the Middle Ages, the city, organized around the main street (now the Rue Torterue) became an important port, capable of accommodating ships with a capacity of one hundred tons.

Beautiful light house at the coast line.

The coast of Saint-Gilles-Droix-de-Vie is part of the Vendée coast and enjoys levels of sunshine that compare with more Mediterranean latitudes. Unfortunately we didn't see any sundhine during our visit. But anyway, the Vendée coast has rather famous seaside resorts, like Saint-Jean-de-Monts, Les Sables d’Olonne, La Tranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. Its long beaches stretch along the Atlantic coast offer plenty of attractions for holidaymakers. At Saint-Gilles=Croix-de-Vie the coastline starts out very roughly which was a great place for our kids to enjoy some (dangerous) climbing.