La Tremblade

Understand

thumb|Street scene with the bell tower of Sacre Coeur church rising above the rest of town

La Tremblade is in the southwest of Charente-Maritime, covering the western end of the Arvert Peninsula between the Gironde and Seudre estuaries. It's part of the greater Royan area, itself forming a municipality that also includes the villages of Arvert, Étaules and Chaillevette and the surrounds, and faces the town of Marennes. Two sectors dominate the economy: on one hand fishing and oyster farming, and on the other hand beach and ecotourism (during the summer the population more than doubles).

Part of the Marennes-Oléron oyster basin (bassin ostréicole de Marennes-Oléron), which is one of the biggest in Europe, the nearby Port of La Grève is France's most important oyster port. It's a 2 km long canal next to the Seudre River with small barges (bâtas and plates), and thousands of hectares of clear ripening basins where oysters get their unique colour and flavour. Indeed, they may have the appearance of rice fields when they're sparkling in the sun.

The western part of the municipality, facing the Atlantic, has a different character. Until the early 19th century it consisted of vast sand dunes. Then thousands and thousands of pines were planted, and now much of it comprises the Coubre state forest, 8000 hectares in size and part of a set of coastal pine forests continuing south across the Gironde and northwest. There's a dense network of paths in the forest for walks in the green,…

Get around

thumb|Buses like these go around the region

See

thumb|Coubre Lighthouse - with a height of 64 m it's the highest in Charente-Maritime thumb|Boats moored along the Grand-Chenal of La Grève thumb|La côte sauvage, the "savage coast" is a vast area of white sands exposed to the assaults of the ocean - great for surfing!

Buy

The main shopping streets are Place Gambetta, Boulevard Pasteur, Rue de la Seudre, Rue du Général Leclerc and Rue Foran downtown, and Avenue Gabrielle in Ronce-les-Bains. There are two supermarkets outside town, Intermarché and Super U, other than this there's a E.Leclerc hypermarket in Marennes across the river and even more in Royan.

Connect

You can hear the main national radio stations, and the following local stations: Demoiselle FM (102.2 MHz), Vogue Radio (103.1 MHz), France Bleue La Rochelle (103.6 MHz), Mixx Radio (106.5 MHz). The regional tv station France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine has an office in nearby Royan.

On the newspaper side, the daily newspaper is the Sud-Ouest based in Bordeaux but with an editorial office in Royan, and the weekly newspaper Le Littoral based in Marennes.

There's 4G coverage by the operators Bouyges Telecom, Orange, SFR, Free Mobile in much of La Tremblade but there may be some spots in the coverage in the Coubre Forest.

Stay healthy

The nearest hospital is the CHR Malakoff in Vaux-sur-Mer (a suburb of Royan), 18 km from central La Tremblade. It's a public hospital with an emergency room operating 24/7. In addition there are many private clinics in Royan.

Go next

thumb|Remains of the fortified city of Brouage