La Flotte en Ré – loop

By bus to Ile de Re, La Flotte, very nice hike along the coast and inland.

Before leaving Île de Ré, we take a circular hike along the northeast coast in the area around La Lotte en Ré. The town was recommended to us by the tourist information office in Saint-Martin-de-Ré as the most beautiful town in France 🤔 That's where our route takes us. In the late morning, we drive to the Abbaye des Châteliers and park the car in the free parking lot. We'll take a closer look at the monastery upon our return. We head to the coast and plan to visit Fort la Prée, a fortress dating back to 1626. Unfortunately, the fort is closed; it's apparently only open to visitors from April to September 🤷🏼 https://www.fort-la-pree.com/ Our route leads through a sparse pine forest with many open spaces on dry sandy soils. The network of trails isn't entirely identical to the Komoot map; we check that we're heading in the right direction. We reach La Lotte in the early afternoon and sit down at a restaurant by the harbor. The town looks tidy, with the streets elaborately paved – reminding me of a terrazzo floor. I liked the town atmosphere better in Saint-Martin-de-Ré. We return to our starting point on a footpath, first along the quayside and later above a low cliff. The ruins of the Abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Ré, also known as the Dite des Châteliers, were a Cistercian monastery dating back to 1156. https://www.iledere.com/decouvrir/les-incontournables/labbaye-des-chateliers/ https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_Notre-Dame-de-R%C3%A9_dite_des_Ch%C3%A2teliers

Bit in the forest where the trail is gone... so fought through plantlife for 10 mins...