Ancienne embarcadère de Sablanceaux Nature Reserves in Rivedoux-Plage

Located at the tip of Rivedoux-Plage, the former Sablanceaux pier was, for more than a century, the only maritime gateway linking the island of Ré to the mainland.

Before the bridge's inauguration in 1988, the crossing from La Rochelle was made aboard steamships, then the famous ferry crossings. For generations of travelers, disembarking on this slipway at the foot of the Vauban redoubt marked the poetic beginning of their holidays, despite the legendary summer queues under the sun.

Today, while the opening of the bridge has definitively put an end to the ferry traffic, the Sablanceaux site remains a powerful place of island memory. The old slipways and the jetty, now popular with walkers and fishermen, recall this maritime past when arriving on the island required taking one's time and letting the sea orchestrate the journey.