Noirmoutier

Barbâtre, on the south of Noirmoutier island, is the island's kite Swiss army knife: a sandy ocean face battered by swell on one side, and on the other the Bay of Bourgneuf, shallow and calm, where the Boucholeurs beach is the island's tolerated kite zone. Between the two, tides that rule everything and mussel posts that remind you this is mussel-farming country.

Barbâtre is the south of Noirmoutier island, between ocean and Bay of Bourgneuf — a two-faced spot. To the west, the ocean coast: seven kilometres of sand backed by a dune belt and a state forest, exposed to the west swell, a surf and wave spot, more of an autumn affair. To the east, the Bay of Bourgneuf: shallow, calm, and it's there, on the Boucholeurs beach, that kiting lives — water about a metre deep, weak current and waves, a ground for freeride, freestyle and foil. According to locals and guides, it's the island's only tolerated kite zone in summer, the other spots said to be banned from 15 May to 15 September — but the order wasn't found, to be put cautiously. The name says the hazard: the boucholeurs are the mussel farmers, and the bay bristles with mussel posts, short and sharp, uncovering at low tide on big coefficients. The obstacles are north of the zone: on a south wind, you avoid drifting into them. The tide rules everything, and the sources differ — some give the bay rideable from mid to high tide, others prefer low tide for less chop: you read the day's tide. To the south, the pointe de la Fosse borders the Fromentine narrows, where tidal currents are strong and traffic real. And off the Gois, that mythical submersible causeway, school lagoons on sandbars where the island's schools practise their scales. A shellfish-farming territory before it's a playground.