I much enjoyed reading Carola Long’s piece on Île d’Yeu — “‘Like Saint-Tropez 50 years ago’: western France’s little-known island escape” (Travel, Life & Arts, September 7) — in part because it rekindled marvellous memories from my student days. Since the time I visited the island in late September 1968, much touristic development seems to have taken place but thankfully, it appears, without detracting from the place’s charms.
That was the holiday I was introduced to sailing. I had jumped at the opportunity to join four fellow students at the University of Louvain (Belgium) for a week of adventure, sailing out from the mainland port of La Rochelle. One of our excursions was a day-long journey to Île d’Yeu.
The sailing was smooth, except when the wind suddenly completely died down, and the auxiliary engine also refused to start. As a result, our skipper worried that we would be too late to catch the high tide, and could run aground in the harbour before reaching the dock. He was spot on. At 7pm, as darkness fell, we were stuck in barely four feet of water, 50 metres from shore. Thankfully we got help and a rowing boat transported us to dry land.
In those days, along the waterfront, there were just a couple of café-restaurants. One was playing loud music celebrating a local wedding. We joined in and had food and wine too. At around 4am, under a full moon I recall we marvelled to see our boat gently rocking with the water, as the tide had turned.
The following day, after a good sleep on board, we did what your correspondent did, and rented bikes to explore, going from beach to beach.
At one of these beaches we swam, and were amazed by the temperature of the ocean water, like that of a baby’s bath, so close were we to the Gulfstream. In Île d’Yeu, you can enjoy the beach, even as late as October.
Henri Lorie
Chapel Hill, NC, US
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