The Vendée

Gastronomy and local products of the Vendée

In the Vendée, take advantage of your vacation to sharpen your taste buds and discover a multitude of local producers and local specialties.

Located near the coast, close to Saint Jean de Monts and the Bois Verdon campsite, discover our local producers:

• the sardine cannery of Saint Gilles Croix de Vie,
• the direct sale of oysters at the Barre de Monts – Fromentine,
• the salt marsh, les Boucheaux in Beauvoir sur Mer,
• the cannery of the Ile d’Yeu (sale of cooked products based on seafood, tuna and smoked salmon),
• the cookie factory of Noirmoutier.

At 2 km from Bois Verdon, walk along the avenue of the forest, near the embankment of Saint Jean de Monts. Many of the restaurants are waiting for you to offer you a variety of menus to savor the local specialties cooked with seafood (mackerel, cod, sardines from Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, sea bream …) and taste the delicious seafood (Bouchot mussels, crabs, spiders, scampi, sole sablaise …)

In the Vendéen bocage, only 1H30 from Verdon Wood, taste the unavoidable Vendéen brioche in Vendrennes and taste the delicious préfou, a speciality of the South of the Vendée that is eaten as an aperitif. It is a bread that is traditionally filled with butter and garlic and is served hot. There are also prefou with chorizo, goat cheese and dried tomato.

Don’t forget the typical dish of the Vendée Bas-Bocage, the traditional ham-mogette combining the tender and soft Vendée ham and the mogette (white bean) which is mostly grown in the Bas-Bocage.

The Vendée is also renowned for the quality of its wines and its craft beers.

Come and visit the Vendée vineyards united under the AOC Fiefs Vendéens.

Fiefs Vendéens includes five terroirs in the Vendée region, which are distributed as follows

• The Brem area near the ocean with the communes of Brem sur Mer, Brétignolles sur Mer, l’île d’Olonne, Olonne sur Mer and Vairé. There are dry white wines as well as light rosé wines and stronger reds.
• The terroir of Chantonnay, in the central Vendée, whose vineyards are located on the slopes of the Lay river in Chantonnay.
• the Mareuil terroir covering 330 hectares, known for its red, rosé and white wines. The Mourat vineyards are also part of this region and you will find some of their products in the grocery store of the 4 star Bois Verdon campsite in the Vendée.
• the terroir of Pissotte, in the South-East of the Vendée, near the forest of Mervent-Vouvant, known for its rosés and whites.
• the terroir of Vix, south of Fontenay le Comte, producing mainly red and white wines.

As an aperitif, taste the famous ” trouspinette de Vendée” that you can buy at the Bois Verdon grocery store. It is a sweet and soft wine, flavored by blackthorn or hawthorn shoots that are left to macerate.

As a digestive, try the Kamok, a coffee liqueur prepared from the infusion of 3 great Arabicas and then aged for more than three years in oak barrels. It is mainly tasted with crushed ice.

As far as the beers of the Vendée are concerned, we can mention some craft breweries:

• the Mélusine brewery, located in Chambretaud, offering 16 different beers with an organic and conventional range. At the Bois Verdon bar, you can enjoy the delicious Love and Flowers, an organic white beer with rose petals, awarded the bronze medal at the 2020 agriculture show,
• The brewery la Petite Ramonière located in the Breton marsh of Notre Dame de Monts, only 5 km from the campsite le Bois Verdon, offers a range of 5 beers available all year round and another 5 seasonal beers. These beers are named after birds found in the marsh, such as the avocette (white beer), the stilt (lager), the barge (amber beer)…
• the N’O Brewery in La Guérinière on the island of Noirmoutier, 30 minutes from the Bois Verdon campsite, is the only beer brewed and bottled on the island and offers a range of eight beers for sale at the brewery and in the bars and restaurants of the island of Noirmoutier.