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Coastal towns near Nantes ?

Dave123

10+ Posts
We're considering coastal towns (self-catering) near to Nantes for summer 2020, ideally with rail access, and wondered if anyone had any experience or recommendations for the locality ? The nearest to Nantes that we have stayed before is La Rochelle, to the south. TIA

Dave.

PS I now see that the locality of interest is the Loire Valley West
 
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Pornic is probably the closest coastal town from Nantes. It's just an hour away by train. I haven't been there, but Pornic looks like an attractive place. The island called Noirmoutier is not far south. I've been there and it is really nice. Don't think it has train service, however. Maybe bus service.
 
To the north instead of the south, and not much further from Nantes, is La Baule. We went there a couple of times years ago because friends lived there, and it was a typical beach town (ie, pretty touristy) even then. The fast train from Nantes to La Baule takes less than 50 minutes.
 
Pornic is the current favourite ... but dismayed to see a Tripadvisor 'low-to-high price' search appearing to place Homeaway rentals towards the top of the list, and not in strict 'low-to-high price' ranking:

1. £60 Per Night - Homeaway
2. £106 Per Night - Homeaway
3. £121 Per Night - Homeaway
4. £174 Per Night - Homeaway
5. £272 Per Night - Homeaway
6. £77 Per Night - Homeaway
7. £83 Per Night - Homeaway
8. £87 Per Night - Homeaway
9. £87 Per Night
10. £124 Per Night - Homeaway

Any suggestions for rental platforms other than Airbnb, Homeaway & Tripadvisor ?!

Update: after further scrutiny, the Tripadvisor search algorithm in the example above appears also to be making some allowance for a 'least distance from' filter criterion (from the Office de Tourisme in this case). So maybe the HomeAway rentals (for 2+ bed properties) cluster around the town centre.
 
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Piriac sur Mer
Le Croisic
are several beautiful and low-key coastal villages listed "villages de caractère".
Less than 2 hours drive south is wonderful La Rochelle.
 
I have recently discovered this French property rental platform, claiming "30.000 annonces":

PAP Vacances

"PAP Vacances offre aux particuliers la possibilité de louer leur logement (maison ou appartement) à d'autres particuliers, en toute autonomie et en toute sécurité, tout en évitant les frais d'agence. Depuis plus de 20 ans, de nombreux propriétaires nous font confiance pour mettre en valeur leur location vacances, et leur permettre de rentabiliser leur bien."

That is: "PAP Vacances offers individuals the possibility of renting their accommodation (house or apartment) to other individuals, independently and securely, while avoiding agency fees. For over 20 years, many owners have trusted us to enhance their vacation rental, and allow them to make a profit on their property."

Accordingly, I have used PAP Vacances to locate a holiday rental in Loire-Atlantique this summer.
 
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I have recently discovered this French property rental platform, claiming "30.000 annonces":

PAP Vacances

"PAP Vacances offre aux particuliers la possibilité de louer leur logement (maison ou appartement) à d'autres particuliers, en toute autonomie et en toute sécurité, tout en évitant les frais d'agence. Depuis plus de 20 ans, de nombreux propriétaires nous font confiance pour mettre en valeur leur location vacances, et leur permettre de rentabiliser leur bien."

That is: "PAP Vacances offers individuals the possibility of renting their accommodation (house or apartment) to other individuals, independently and securely, while avoiding agency fees. For over 20 years, many owners have trusted us to enhance their vacation rental, and allow them to make a profit on their property."

Accordingly, I have used PAP Vacances to locate a holiday rental in Loire-Atlantique this summer.
You don't say where.
 
No apologies necessary. I truly hope you enjoy the stay. I always rent through Gîtes de France, and I've had so many good experiences.
 
Many thanks for mentioning Gîtes de France, whom I'd forgotten about.

The nearest that we have stayed previously is La Rochelle (2006), which we enjoyed. The most memorable event was a visit to Rochefort, where we stumbled across a partly-completed reconstruction of L'Hermione, a 1779 32-gun frigate - the original being used during the US War of Independence to ferry French support to the Americans:


It was simply fantastic to see such a vessel close-up.
 
My husband Walt and I went to spend a week on the Ile d'Oléron in 2008. One of the places we wanted to see was nearby Rochefort, on the mainland. Malheureusement, the commercial fishermen of the area were on strike that week, and once we crossed the bridge to get to our rental on the island, we were stuck. Crossing the bridge back to the mainland could take an hour or two in each direction because it was being blockaded by strikers who were severely restricting traffic. We had to enjoy just spending our week on the island itself. And we did.
 

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