Ocean, oysters and marshes: A walk along Oléron – Technologist

Mountains are meant to be climbed, and islands are meant to be traveled around. In July 2023, the Île d’Oléron (Charente-Maritime) opened a coastal path that allows you to walk 105 kilometers around the island, typically completed in five days. The project was initiated by the group of local towns and the mayors of Saint-Denis-d’Oléron and Château-d’Oléron, an avid hiker.

Covering 174 square kilometers, Oléron, which the writer Pierre Loti (1850-1923) dubbed “la lumineuse” (“the luminous one”) is the second-largest island in mainland France after Corsica. Marshes, oyster farms, forests, beaches, fishing ports and numerous birds create a diversity that this trail aims to highlight. In fact, it showcases Oleron’s assets one after the other.

Everything starts from the parking lot and bakery area, referred to by locals as “Le Viaduc” (“the viaduct”) located at the foot of the bridge that has linked the island to the mainland since 1966, with the silhouette of Fort Louvois nearby. Right away, with the fishing huts and oyster beds, you come close to what has made Oléron famous: oysters. When the salt market collapsed at the end of the 19^th century due to competition from the Salins du Midi, Oléron’s residents turned to oyster farming, which was much more profitable. Having been present since the Gallo-Roman era and a favorite of Emperor Napoleon III, the oysters of Marennes-Oléron, which often thrived in former salt marshes, have greatly expanded.

For several kilometers, after stopping at the Château-d’Oléron citadel, a fortress that began construction in 1630 and was reinforced by Vauban, the path follows that of the oysters and runs alongside several channels that drain rainwater during low tide to allow seawater to enter at high tide, creating a mixture that is favorable for mollusk cultivation. Small colorful huts were built for sorting them, many of which are still in use today. The port of La Baudissière has transformed many of these huts into artists’ homes, following the same model as those found further along in Saint-Trojan-les-Bains. From the path, the boundary between land and sea blurs, forming a long brown plain.

Next up is the Moëze-Oléron nature reserve, a polder that serves as a major stopover on the East Atlantic Flyway migration route. Established in 1985, it allows thousands of birds to feed peacefully in the tidal mudflats. Greylag geese, spoonbills and Eurasian magpies fly about without a care in the world.

The varying depths and salinity levels in different areas create diverse biological reserves. Birds, a prominent presence, can be found throughout the island, from the beaches where seagulls and plovers tread the long stretches left vacant by the tide, to marshes like Papineau Marsh and the aptly named “Birds’ Marsh.”

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