The Jade Coast (french: Côte de Jade) constitutes the coastal fringe of the Pays de Retz in

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

, extending from the Loire estuary in the north to the Marais breton in the south, thus bordering the

Bay of Bourgneuf The Bay of Bourgneuf (french: Baie de Bourgneuf, ) is a bay situated on the French Atlantic coast, at the border of the Loire-Atlantique and Vendée departments. In the Middle Ages the bay was known as the ''baie de Bretagne'' or ''baye de Bretagn ...

on its southern part. Its jagged coasts and its numerous beaches are of summer tourist interest.

Description

There is a notable disparity between the coasts north and south of

Pointe Saint-Gildas The Saint Gildas Point (french: Pointe Saint-Gildas, br, Beg Gweltaz) is a rocky point located on the Côte de Jade, in the far west of the Pays de Retz, in the municipality of Préfailles (Loire-Atlantique), France. The point lies at the sout ...

. To the north, from Mindin ( Saint-Brevin-les-Pins) to Cormier (

La Plaine-sur-Mer La Plaine-sur-Mer (; br, Plaen-Raez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique department The following is a list of the 207 communes of the Loire-Atlantique ...

) stretch long fine sandy beaches with vast foreshores, bordered by pine-wooded dunes or low cliffs. To the south, from La Plaine-sur-Mer to La Bernerie-en-Retz, the coast is wilder and presents a succession of coves and more or less reduced beaches, separated by rocky areas with larger schist cliffs. These then fade into the

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s, salt marshes and

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

s of the around

Les Moutiers-en-Retz Les Moutiers-en-Retz (, literally ''Les Moutiers in Retz''; br, Mousteroù-Raez) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Climate The climate which characterises the town was classified, in 2010, as a “frank oceanic ...

Development

Tourism in the Pays de Retz developed from the late 17th century with the fashion for therapeutic bathing leading to the development of beach facilities in Pornic.

Toponymy

The Côte de Jade was named from

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

-green colours of the sea during the expansion of tourism during the 1930s. Littoral stBrevin

Resorts

The principal resorts of the Côte de Jade are: * Saint-Brevin-les-Pins * Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef * Tharon-Plage *

* Préfailles * Sainte-Marie-sur-Mer * Pornic * La Bernerie-en-Retz *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cote de Jade Seaside resorts in France Landforms of Loire-Atlantique Coasts of France