Pays de la Loire

Understand

Pays de la Loire is adjoined by the region of Centre-Val de Loire with which it shares many affinities. Both regions border on the Loire Valley and host famous châteaux. The Pays de la Loire is somewhat more diverse, however, and has a long coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, forming the northern part of the Bay of Biscay, within the area known as the Vendée.

Tourist information Pays de la Loire tourism website

Getting there

By car From Paris, the A11 autoroute runs to Le Mans and onto Angers and Nantes. The A28 runs from Normandy from the north and Tours from the south to Le Mans. Also from Tours, the A85 links to Angers. From the south, the A83 comes from Niort and runs up through Vendée to Nantes. From Brittany, there are no autoroutes into the region, however, the N165, N137 and N157 run from Morbihan, Rennes (south and west) respectively.

By train Le Mans is in the western branch of the LGV Atlantique line, about 1 hr from Paris Montparnasse (commonly known as the TGV service). Standard mainline track then runs onward to Angers and Nantes. The city also has rail connections to Caen to the N and to Tours to the S, to Rennes (via Laval) to the W and to Chartres to the E. Nantes has rail connections to the N to Rennes and S to La Rochelle as well as to Angers then Le Mans then Paris (2 hr) by TGV. Angers additionally has rail connection to Le Mans to Tours and to Nantes. Saumur has rail connections to Nantes as well as Tours and Angers then Paris by TGV.

By plane Pays de la Loire is served by two commercial airports:

Nantes Atlantique The main airport in the region has good transport links from the centre of Nantes and is 10 minutes off of the ring road. It has flights from the Caribbean, Africa, North America, and other European airports.

Angers – Loire The only commercial flights go to and come from London City Airport and are run by British Airways. There are three car rental companies operating at the airport: Europcar, Enterprise and Avis. The car park is completely free and has direct access to the terminal. Also on the airfield is an aviation museum which is worth a visit if you're into that sort of thing.

Getting around

The region has a good rail network, with the majority of services operated by TER Pays de la Loire.

Eat

The Pays-de-la-Loire region is quite varied culinarily. Its historical ties with Brittany strongly marked the food tradition in the north of the region, while the coast features all kinds of seafood dishes. The Vendée area also has a strong culinary identity. A region-wide tradition everyone should try is salted butter with large crystals of salt: inhabitants of Pays de la Loire would not have it otherwise. Brittany's most famous specialty is by far their delicious crêpes, pancakes of wheat or buckwheat, eaten with sweet or savory garnish. Restaurants serving them are called crêperies and will often serve only that. Small kiosks on the street may serve crêpes as well, generally of lower quality and sometimes sweet only. A tourist in the region should try at least one meal of crêpes only, with a savory main course (the most common would be a "complete": eggs, ham and cheese) and a sweet crêpe for dessert. Other specialties from Brittany include the saucisse bretonne, a sausage traditionally eaten wrapped in a buckwheat crêpe, and l'andouille de Guémené, another type of sausage. On the sweet side, the Far Breton cake is a rich cake, served with or without prunes. The Kouign-Amann is another sweet pastry famous for the large quantities of butter used in its making. And you can always top anything with a generous serving of sea-salt caramel ("caramel au beurre salé").

Seafood is found everywhere but coastal cities will get you the best of the best. Oysters and mussels are favorites. Fish is often served with beurre blanc sauce, whose invention is disputed between Angers and Nantes. Salt is produced all along the coast, and the finest fleur-de-sel is made either in Guerande or in Noirmoutier depending on who you ask. In the salt pans, producers also grow the salicorne, a very flavorful seaweed served in salads or as a side. Cheese is plentiful throughout the region. Typical of France, almost every city has its type of cheese. Famous ones include the Port-Salut, the Curé

Drink & nightlife

The region grows grape, a lot of it, and makes many wines. The most famous, if you ask a French person, is probably the Muscadet, a white wine that is kept with the lees (the dead yeast) for a full winter, giving it a yeasty, tangy flavor with a light body. Gamay, red or rosé, is typical of the Loire-Atlantique wineries, as well as Gros-Plant. Red Gamay is light-bodies with fruity flavors, and will please amateurs of the more famous Pinot Noir. In Anjou, the white Coteaux du Layon has a beautiful golden robe and will please those who enjoy a sweet white wine.

Sleep

With a strong tourist industry throughout, it's easy to find hotels, especially along the Atlantic coast. In summer, budget travelers can rent campsites for cheap by getting a few kilometers away from the coast.

Go next

Travellers wishing to see more of the Loire Valley can continue further east into the adjoining Centre-Val de Loire region, studded with additional historical cities and chateaux at sites such as Bourges and Saint-Benoît-du-Sault. Travellers who enjoy the Atlantic coast can go south to Nouvelle-Aquitaine or north to Brittany.