The Pays de la Loire is a region of confluence, a vast expanse of wooded countryside, marshes and Atlantic coastline where the Loire concludes its thousand-kilometre journey before flowing into the Atlantic via a wide estuary. Nantes, its metropolitan capital, was for centuries the capital of the Duchy of Brittany and one of France’s leading trading ports, whose prosperity was tragically linked to the slave trade in the 18th century.
The castle heritage of the Pays de la Loire is closely linked to the history of the Duchy of Brittany and Anjou, two of the most powerful principalities in medieval France. The Château des Ducs de Bretagne in Nantes, a medieval fortress with white walls surrounded by a moat, was the residence of the last dukes before the union with France. Brissac, the highest castle in France, Montsoreau, Saumur, whose white silhouette dominates the Loire, Serrant, Le Plessis-Bourré with its moat and drawbridge… Anjou boasts a succession of masterpieces along the banks of the Loire and its tributaries.
The Vendée, long synonymous with counter-revolutionary resistance, is today home to Puy du Fou, a world-renowned evening show and historical park that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer. The Atlantic coastline, stretching from Bourgneuf Bay to the Côte de Jade via the island of Noirmoutier and Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, completes this picture of a charming and diverse region.