Island of Aix

At the western end of La Flow Vélo® lies this enchanting small island. A trip out here is always a little adventure in itself. To get to l’île d’Aix, you need to take a boat from the port of Fouras and its headland, the Pointe de la Fumée. Relish the sea crossing towards this tiny promised land, where the only form of locomotion permitted is… the bicycle! 

Around Aix Island by bike 

L’île d’Aix is a beautiful, unspoilt, green gem, set in the sea between two much larger islands, Ré and Oléron. Aix’s crescent of sand is just three kilometres long and 700m at its widest, but it provides all the charms of an island escape. Close by stands the more claustrophobic island prison, Fort Boyard, of iconic TV game fame. As you cycle freely around Aix Island you’re never far from remarkable, open views across the beautiful Pertuis Sea Marine Nature Reserve.

Even if it’s possible to cycle right around Aix Island in under an hour, take more time to explore the island to the full. On the southern end stands the island’s big village, or bourg, set within ramparts. The island’s central part is dominated by beaches and marshes. In the north, the woods and creeks have a hint of the Mediterranean. Enjoy exploring each hidden corner of this most island-like of the Charente’s islands!

To explore the woods made up of pines and evergreen oaks in the north of the island, leave your bike close to Fort Liédot, beside Le Bois Joly. The trails through this little wood are exclusively reserved for those on foot. However, getting around Aix Island by bike means you can easily switch from one beach to the next, choosing the best according to sun and wind. 

The bourg, or village, fortified by Vauban

As well as the typical little low houses with their green or blue shutters, you’ll spot the elegant façades of bourgeois houses along the village’s main street. You may find the pink colour of some of the homes rather surprising.

This exceptional aixois feature is due to the beautiful American, Eva Gebhard, nicknamed Aix Island’s fairy godmother. She married Baron Gourgaud and had an unbridled love of luxury and eccentricity. She wanted everything to be pink in her house. Hence why she had façades, walls and furniture painted that colour… down the doves in the garden, dyed pink too! 

The Gourgauds were a couple who fell for Aix Island in the 1920s, leaving quite a mark on the village, transforming the former Maison du Gouverneur, the fine governor’s house, and setting up the Musée Napoléonien and the Musée Africain. There’s no doubting that Baron Napoléon Gourgaud and his wife contributed greatly to the tourist interest of this little corner of paradise.

The fortifications around Aix Island

From the end of the 17th century, l’île d’Aix was turned into a strategic link in the defensive chain created to protect the naval port of Rochefort up the Charente River. Aix Island being located opposite the Charente Estuary, it lay in a perfect spot to help protect the naval vessels coming and going from the port’s docks.

Louis XIV’s great military engineer, Vauban, designed the Fort de la Rade on the southern end of Aix Island in order to defend the Charente Estuary. However, these defences proved inadequate when a British Royal Navy fleet attacked in 1757. The British Navy won another major victory here in 1809 at the Battle of the Basque Roads (known in French as the Bataille de l’île d’Aix or the Affaire des Brulôts, as the British Navy sent in fireships), causing Napoleon to order the fortification of Aix Island’s eastern point.

As early as 1810, works on Fort Enet were completed, as were extensions to the fortifications of the Fort de la Rade, while Fort Liédot was built on the island’s northern end. The main fort with its forward bastions could house 600 soldiers, plus the island’s whole population.

Make the most of the promenade along the Pointe Sainte-Catherine headland to look out to the islands of d’Oléron and Fort Boyard from the ramparts of the Fort de la Rade. And note that if you visit Fort Liédot, you can enjoy the exhibition, Les Mystères du Fort Boyard (The Mysteries of Fort Boyard), telling all about the epic building of that extraordinary military defence turned architectural TV game celebrity.

Don’t miss the last ferry (bac in French) to Fouras and the mainland, otherwise you’ll have to spend the night on the island, either at the Fort de la Rade campsite, or at the Hôtel Napoléon!