The North Island Gourmet Trail by bike

Discovering local produce is also an opportunity to tantalise your taste buds with quality products! A market, a gourmet meal, a terrace on the harbour, an oyster shack... so many opportunities to treat yourself.
Take advantage of this bike ride to discover some of the many local specialities. From oysters and salt to seaweed, new potatoes and organic vegetables, there's something for everyone! Ready to try your hand at local gastronomy?

Ars-en-Ré
Surrounded on both sides by the sea and salt marshes, market gardens and vineyards, Ars-en-Ré has an undeniable charm, combining simplicity and elegance. Just a stone's throw from the port, there's nothing better than strolling through the market to discover the delights of the Ile de Ré. Local producers set up their stalls: sun-drenched fruit and vegetables, seafood and local cheeses offer their intense colours and aromas; artists display their work, children take a ride on the merry-go-round... all the senses are in for a treat. In winter, a smaller market is held on the Place Carnot.

Salt farming In the north of the island, between La Couarde and Les-Portes-en-Ré, the man-made salt marshes stretch as far as the eye can see. For over a thousand years, the island's ‘white gold’ has been cultivated here: IGP sea salt and the delicate flower of salt that delicately flavours dishes. In midsummer, at dusk, around a hundred salt workers harvest 2,000 tonnes of coarse salt and 200 tonnes of flower of salt by hand from over 400 hectares of cultivated marshland, using the same ancestral methods. True farmers of the sea, they are the guardians of this local heritage and invaluable biodiversity. As you cycle towards Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, you'll be able to fill your basket with more potatoes, organic vegetables, salt or even seaweed, direct from local producers.

Les-Portes-en-Ré
As you walk along the Lilleau des Niges nature reserve, you'll have the chance to spot many birds on migration, or when they're nesting, particularly in spring when the yellow of the mustard flowers brightens up this bucolic landscape. The salt marshes are also home to edible flora associated with this very special environment.

Glasswort is a salt-loving herbaceous plant that is harvested in salt marshes.
Edible, this gherkin from the sea is the green gold of the Ile de Ré. Fleshy and crunchy in spring, it's perfect for a spring salad or eaten raw as an aperitif. In summer, it is more bitter and is best cooked as a vegetable, such as a green bean, in stews, omelettes or as an accompaniment to fish or meat. Maceron is a wild plant that grows along marshes. Its seed is a surprisingly delicious spice with a peppery, lemony flavour. Don't hesitate to try this wild pepper from the Ile de Ré salt marshes!

To facilitate the salt trade, wharves were built very early on along the channels of the salt marshes. One of them, more accessible, has been known as the ‘old port’ since the 17th century. This port was completely rebuilt in freestone in the 19th century, and a bridge was added over the lock. In the heart of one of the oldest salt-harvesting sites, the Maison du Fier, a former salorge, is one of the last remaining examples of a salt shed on the Ile de Ré. The salt harvested from the surrounding marshes was stored here while awaiting shipment by coastal shipping to other regions of France.

Saint-Clément-des-Baleines
A spectacular view awaits you from the top of the 57-metre Phare des Baleines lighthouse. Around 4 km offshore, you can see the Phare des Baleineaux lighthouse. At low tide, at the foot of the lighthouse, you'll discover one of the last fish locks on the island, ‘la Moufette’. To provide for their food needs, the people of Rétais built fixed fish traps on the foreshore. The first locks are thought to have been built in the 15th century. In 1727, there were around 115 locks on the island. By 1982, only 11 remained. The shape of the lock and the technical tricks used in its construction have a very specific purpose: to withstand shocks of 20t/m² during storms. These stone ramparts are between 1,000 and 1,500 m long, built without cement or mortar and shaped like a horseshoe to trap fish at ebb tide.

Fishing prevented famine. Some of the village's fishermen even had a speciality: lobster. But the economy of Saint-Clément-des-Baleines was mainly based on salt and wine, crops that are still grown today. Market gardening is also important here, with its flagship product the Pomme de Terre Primeur A.O.P. As you stroll along, you'll come across a mill. As cereal production was fairly limited on the island, wheat was usually imported, but it was milled locally, which explains the large number of mills. In 1894, four of the village's seven windmills were still in operation. Today, only two of them remain, bearing witness to a bygone era, and have now been converted into homes.

At the heart of village life, next to Saint-Clément church, the square comes alive in the mornings with the market and local shops. Do as the villagers do, and fill your basket with vegetables, oysters, prawns, seaweed and salt from local producers, as well as fish, meat, cheese, melon or strawberries... enough to make excellent meals for your family and friends.

Show less