Au Passage du Gois - holiday cottages in the Western Loire area - Vendée

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Au Passage du Gois - holiday cottages in the Western Loire area - Vendée

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Welcome to our holiday cottages in the Vendee on the french Atlantic coast

13/10/2026

We currently have guests over for the autumn holidays in the Netherlands. So there's no denying it: summer is unfortunately over 😊 We are sharing one last photo of us during this year's very last visit to the Passage du Gois together with our guests.

We've already come up with something fun for next year. Hemko mapped out a few routes in the area to drop off our guests. Everyone can then walk back to us at their own pace, enjoying the surroundings and nature. Who would like to do that? The routes range from 5 km to 20 km.

Have you ever been on holiday to Prague? We just got back and really enjoyed it. We thought it was a lovely city with so much to see. On top of that, the public transport is very well organized. Highly recommended (though of course, it's even nicer staying with us, so just come spend your holiday in our bubble in France next year 😊).

Martine has written another book. It's again a lighthearted feel-good novel, set in the Netherlands this time, perfect to read after a suspenseful or emotional book. We are very sorry but is is only availble in the Dutch language.

Did your garden make it through the warm summer well? We’ve started making some changes to ours. This winter, we plan to remove the wooden garden shed and create two seating areas in the shade of the trees. We've begun trimming the hedge so that when you're sitting down, you'll have a beautiful view of the surroundings and the passing birds. This is still the "before" photo. Once everything is finished the photo of the new situation will follow 😊.

We've started working on a newsletter looking back at 2026 and sharing a few (small) changes for 2027. Among other things, we will no longer be renting out our holiday home La Plage starting next year, as we have paid off our mortgage. You can read more in our newsletter later this month.

See you soon and have a great week!

Warm regards from France,

Hemko and Martine

20/09/2026

Bonjour, how are things? We hope you’re enjoying your Sunday off.

Everything is going well here. We feel lucky, as we have two sunny weeks ahead of us, though fortunately not too hot, around 23–24°C. It’s been a beautiful September, though we can tell summer is starting to draw to a close.

The samphire is slowly turning red, the bumblebees are spending less time on the flowers and more time hanging out on the walls, and *vin bourru*, the fresh, unfermented juice from the newly harvested grapes, is now available in shops.

We’re still heading out and about with our guests every week. Self-caught carpet shell clams taste delicious on the BBQ, and visiting the Passage never gets old, whether at sunset or just as the tide is coming in to close the causeway.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of butterflies in the garden, after months of silence, the tree frogs are croaking away, and we’re managing to fit in some fun activities ourselves. We visited the Charles Milcendeau museum in Soulans, went on a 10km safari at the Planète Sauvage zoo, and next week we’re planning a trip to our favorite beach on Noirmoutier: Plage de Luzéronde.

Our neighbor Claire has already tested out the new cycle path, which is almost finished and friends of ours have walked it. We hear it’s highly recommended. Hopefully, we’ll have time for a ride along it next week! 😊

Warm regards from France,

Hemko and Martine

PS Claire merci pour l'image! 😊

24/08/2026

We hadn't even finished editing the video and then is was already as if it had never happened... The sun is shining beautifully again.

18/08/2026

Our activities this week:

1. can you guess yesterday's activity by looking at the photos? :-)
2. evening walk
3. fishing for wedge clams and shrimp

In short, our guests (and we too 😀) are still thoroughly enjoying the summer. We hope you are as well. Have a great day.

Greetings from France,

Hemko and Martine

13/08/2026

Did you watch the eclipse yesterday? Naturally, we went to the Passage du Gois with our guests. We brought along cushions and refreshments. It was a really great experience.

11/08/2026

🦉🐇🦔 While we sleep, it comes to life in our former vegetable garden...

Our wildlife camera captured these nocturnal visitors by the water trough this week.

02/08/2026

Are you enjoying the summer? Time seems to be flying by. Is it the same for you?

Even after 20 years, something new can still happen. Early one morning, we found an eel on the road right by our entrance. How on earth did it get there?!?

We are pleased to see that work is well underway on the cycle path towards Fromentine and the bridge to the island of Noirmoutier. Things have paused briefly for the holiday season, but work will resume in September; the signs are already up. Once it’s finished, you’ll be able to take a lovely circular route starting from our place. It’s 25 km in total, so it’s easily manageable even without an e-bike.

We have six banana trees in bloom this year. The first (tiny) bananas are yellow.

We do a bit of maintenance work now and then, provided it doesn't disturb our guests—like installing these beautiful Maxibel lights in our parking area.

We’re even thinking ahead to next year already. We plan to remove the wooden garden shed under the trees in the spring and create a terrace there instead. We’ve already placed a bench there as a trial run and are enjoying the view.

17/07/2026

We are enjoying the summer, and it looks like our guests are too 😎 The pool area is lively and colorful; we’re having a great time with our activities and we are, very seriously of course🍽️, testing out restaurants for our guests 😊 Every now and then, we go for a picnic or a walk in our beautiful surrounding area 🌞 or we head to fun events in nearby villages, like the kite festival 🪁 on the photo.

Are you enjoying the summer?

Have a good weekend,

Hemko and Martine

27/06/2026

Thierry, our favorite salt farmer in Bouin, has been sweating these past few days (and had a lot of salt). Hemko took the photos when we visited him last Thursday.

Have a great weekend!

Best regards,

Hemko and Martine

22/06/2026

It is better to drive over the Passage du Gois at low tide. Hemko took this photo of the poor people with their caravan a few days ago. His picture even made it into the newspaper.

Are you enjoying the sunny weather? At our place, the swimming pool is being used gratefully 😎 The owls chasing away pooping pigeons are watching. Can you picture yourself floating in the sun or the shade? You surely understand that Hemko cleans the pool with pleasure every day 💦😊

We had a lot of activity around our house this weekend due to the Foulees du Gois, with 2,000 runners on the Passage du Gois. With a bit of humor, we kept (almost) all the french men with an urgent need at bay.

This past weekend we made the first batch of jam of the year; apricots. An elderberry bush was heavily pruned, and while cleaning the cottage, we quickly snapped a photo of our banana plantation. We have three flowers so far this year.

To our delight, there are an above-average number of butterflies in the garden. It is beautiful to see, but very difficult to take a good photo of them.

Have a great week and enjoy the summer!🌻

Greetings from France,

Hemko & Martine

Adresse

Le Menitres
Beauvoir-sur-Mer
85230

Téléphone

+33251490217

Site Web

https://aupassagedugois.com/

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