Ile de Re - Beach

We approached Ile de Re around 4:30 pm on Sat and (after a much more successful toll booth experience) promptly encountered a traffic jam on the bridge.  Seems beach traffic is a universal problem.  Ile de Re is connected to La Rochelle by a 3km long bridge that is one lane each way.  It is a big family vacation destination for both French and British tourists.

French traffic jam - the merging is just as cut-throat as in Paris

After checking into our hotel in the town of Le Bois Plage en Re we immediately went to check out the beach which was in walking distance.  Le Bois Plage has a 5km long beach with nice sand, though the tide was out and the wind was up when we arrived.

The kiteboarders were out in force and we got an amazing show from a few of them right near shore.

Blue flags designate the edges of the life-guarded area of the beach

The tides in this part of France are quite large (typically one tide per day is around 3 meters and the second tide per day is around 5 meters).  Therefore the sand/water ratio at the beach varies drastically depending on the tide.  The beaches all had large swimming areas marked by yellow buoys and at low tide several of them would be high and dry on the beach.  (This also can get interesting for boats - some boats just end up sitting on the sea bed at low tide, and the docks all have long ramps to accommodate the tide swing)

Swimming area buoys at low tide