Noirmoutier (also

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

: Île de Noirmoutier, ; br, Nervouster, ) is a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

off the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the

Vendée Vendée (; br, Vande) is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

(85).

History

Noirmoutier was the location of an early

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

raid in 799, when raiders attacked the monastery of Saint Philibert of Jumièges in 799. The Vikings established a permanent base on the island around 824, from which they could control southeast

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

by the 840s. In 848, they sacked

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. From 862 until 882, Hastein used it as a base from which he raided

Francia Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...

and

. Noirmoutier was the site of several campaigns in the War of the Vendée, as well as a massacre and the place of execution of the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

Generalissimo Maurice D'Elbée, who faced the firing squad seated in a chair due to wounds accumulated from an earlier battle. St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier was born on this island on 31 July 1796.

Geography

The island comprises ten localities and four distinct

Communes of France The () is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, ' in Germany, ' in Italy, or ' in Spain. The United Kingdom's equi ...

. Its length is approximately , and its width varies from to . Its area of . Noirmoutier is referred to as the ''Island of Mimosas'', due to the temperateness of its climate, which allows for the flowering of '' Acacia dealbata'' (mimosa) year-round. The island is predominantly

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

and salt banks,

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

and evergreen oak forests. The communes of the island are grouped into a '' communauté de communes''. The communes are: *

Barbâtre Barbâtre () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. Geography The altitude of the commune of Barbâtre lies between 0 and 19 meters. The area of the commune is 12.47 km2. Arms The arms ...

* L'Épine * La Guérinière *

Noirmoutier-en-l'Île Noirmoutier-en-l'Île (), commonly referred to as Noirmoutier, is a commune located in the northern part of the island of Noirmoutier, just off the coast of the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. History T ...

The island has been a site of uninterrupted human inhabitation since prehistoric times, and is a popular tourist destination. Parts of the island have been reclaimed from the sea. In 2005 it served as the finish of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

prologue.

Transport

The island is most notable for the

Passage du Gois The () or is a causeway between Beauvoir-sur-Mer and the island of Noirmoutier, in Vendée on the Atlantic coast of France. The causeway is long and is flooded twice a day by the high tide. A road runs along the causeway. Every year, a foot ...

, a paved-over sandbank with a length of , one of the routes that connect the island to the mainland. It is flooded twice a day by the high tide. Until the early 1970s, a ferry service operated across the

Strait of Fromentine The Strait of Fromentine (french: Détroit de Fromentine or ) is the maritime passage that separates the island of Noirmoutier from the mainland, connecting the south of the Bay of Bourgneuf (or "Bay of Brittany") to the north of the Bay of Bis ...

between the

La Fosse De la Fosse is a surname of French origin, and may refer to: * Antoine de La Fosse (c. 1653–1708), French playwright * Charles de La Fosse (1636–1716), French painter, uncle to Antoine * Charles-Alexandre Coëssin de la Fosse (1829–1910), Fre ...

pier on the island and Fromentine pier on the mainland. This was superseded by the construction of the

Noirmoutier Bridge The Noirmoutier Bridge (french: Pont de Noirmoutier) is a bridge located on the west coast of France in the Departments of France, department of Vendée, built in the early 1970s to connect the island of Noirmoutier to the mainland. Before it opene ...

, inaugurated in July 1971.

Events

Every year, an international foot race; the ''

Foulées du Gois The Foulées du Gois () is an international road running race held annually on the Passage du Gois, a Tide, tidal causeway between Beauvoir-sur-Mer and the Île de Noirmoutier, France. The professional race, held over the submerged causeway, is fr ...

'', is held across it, starting at the onset of the high tide. La “Fête de la Bonnotte” (Bonnotte party) is also an annual festival celebrating the first day of potato harvest on the island of Noirmoutier.

Infrastructure

In response to an effort by the French government to add offshore wind projects to the national grid, a 496 MW wind farm is being developed near the island, with a planned commissioning date of 2021.

Climate

Noirmoutier experiences an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

typical of the west coast of France. Both the winters and summers are heavily moderated by the surrounding Atlantic Ocean. There is a low degree of diurnal temperature variation throughout the year, especially in the winter. There is considerably more precipitation in winter compared to summer.

References

External links

Tourist office website

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Tidal islands of France Landforms of Vendée Islands of Pays de la Loire Ramsar sites in Metropolitan France Poitou Pays de la Loire region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Vendée-geo-stub