Île de Noirmoutier
Travel round the island and you pass villages of whitewashed houses with red terracotta tiles, blue shutters and swaying hollyhocks; salt pans where the drying salt glitters in the sunlight and canals that are now home to a huge variety of bird life; towering pine trees that are a distinctive symbol of the French Atlantic coast, as well as forests of oaks and mimosa trees which, thanks to the mild climate – the island is known for its micro-climate that makes it warmer by the coast – burst into a profusion of bright yellow in the earliest weeks of February when the trees flower.
Photo 1 by Jean-Louis GANDON / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 2 and Photo 3 by William Chevillon / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 4 and Photo 5 by A ADAM / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 7 by Thomas McGowan / CC BY 2.0 image cropped