This hilly region, located in the north-east of the Vendée department, forms this landscape of bocage vendeen : rivers that dig valleys, fields surrounded by hedges and an important agricultural activity shaping the landscape to the rhythm of the seasons.
Heights such as the Mont des Alouettes at Les Herbiers and Saint Michel Mont Mercure are the points highlights of the Vendée. It is an agricultural and industrial territory around the towns of Les Herbiers, Montaigu-Vendée and Pouzauges… Vendee Bocage is the tourist territory around the famous Puy du Fou®.
A bocage landscape
From the Vendée, you know its fine sandy beaches, the town of Les Sables d'Olonne and the Vendée Globe, but do you know the different landscapes that make up the Vendée: the plain to the south and the Vendée hills to the northeast. This part of the department of Vendée which is called the bocage vendéen.
What is the Bocage Vendée?
The bocage is a landscape modeled by man for his agricultural and livestock activity. Meadows lined with quickset hedges, flowering broom (yellow flowers). The plots have grown over the centuries for the needs of a more mechanical agriculture, larger livestock. The hedges have been uprooted to form more passable agricultural paths, it is the land consolidation, the gathering of plots.
The bocage is an area between the end of the Armorican Massif and the Poitou plain. There are the last foothills of the Armorican massif on the heights. The granitic chaos from Sevre Nantes are the testimonies as well as the panoramas from where one observes on one side the patchwork of the fields of the plain and the hills of the bocage on the other.
The Vendée bocage is the heights of the Vendée, these small hills, delimited by valleys: the rivers of the Sèvre Nantaise, the valleys of the Petit and Grand Lay, the Maine, the Boulogne which draw meanders and give it an air of “Little Switzerland”.
Of this natural wealth, many outdoor activities developed and animate the territory: a course in the trees à Tépacap Vendee Mesnard la Barotière, from canoeing on the rivers, bathing supervised in the summer on lakes… boat trips, exhibitions in the middle of nature, and above all pretty villages of character with a preserved built heritage, to be discovered over the themed trails.
A land of economic dynamism
Symbol of the spirit of the bocage, Vendée Vallée reflects this art of living in the countryside with all the conveniences of the city and the desire to promote economic development. Many companies, with international notoriety, have established their headquarters in the Vendée Valley: Gautier furniture, Sodebo, Fleury Michon, Kline, Benéteau Jeanneau…
The breath of history
The Vendée is a prosperous area of the Neolithic and territory of the powerful Gallic tribe: the Pictons, it gives its name to this region: Poitou. the Vendée is an important area of the county of Poitou, at the heart of major events in the history of France. When the departments were set up in 1790, Bas Poitou became Vendée.
In the bocage vendéen, theStory lives in family. First at Puy du Fou® and its shows and themed villages, then history is lived “in real life” in the tourist sites. Of the medieval castles visit us at the lodgings of the XNUMXth century, at the Manoir des Sciences de Réaumur… Land of stories and legends, Vendée Bocage is driven by a dynamism not seen elsewhere.
The proof in pictures…
Find all Vendée Bocage videos online on our Youtube channel
Vendée Bocage a land of giants, sportsmen, festivals
The territory of the Vendée bocage: a breeding ground for heroes, outstanding personalities in the history of France were born in the Bocage Vendée: the General Charette, Georges Clemenceau, Gilles de Rais, Gaston Chaissac…
La Vendée and the city of Herbaria vibrated in 2018 thanks to their football club Vendee Les Herbiers Football who have reached the Final of the Coupe de France on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 against PSG (Paris). A Final in red and black in a Stade de France acquired from Vendée.
In summer, the Vendée bocage vibrates to the sound of music festivals. Pop rock festivals, current music like the famous Doll Festival in July. The great names of the French scene sing in the open-air theater on the banks of the Sèvre Nantaise. Of the classical music festivals in churches, abbeys, Logis: Festival of the celestial vaults, Romanesque music festival, Music at the Logis de la Chabotterie… Find all these major events that punctuate the year.
Listen to the attachment of Vendée people to their territory with podcasts
Vendée Valley podcasts : a sound journey in the heart of the Vendée bocage!
