La Rochelle is the gateway to two of the most attractive islands on the French Atlantic coast. The Île de Ré, reached by a toll bridge five minutes north of the city, is the fashionable choice — flat, white-washed villages, salt marshes, and broad sandy beaches. The Île d'Oléron, the second-largest French island, is a longer drive south but has wilder dunes, the oyster villages of Saint-Trojan, and a working fishing port at La Cotinière.
Closer in, the smaller Île d'Aix (passenger ferry only, twenty minutes from La Rochelle) is a car-free island where Napoleon spent his last nights on French soil before being shipped to Saint Helena. Inland, the Marais Poitevin — the "Green Venice" — is a network of canals north of the city where you can hire a flat-bottomed boat for the afternoon.
