A picture-postcard harbour, a medieval market hall and one of the “Plus Beaux Villages de France”: the Ré balance at its very best.
Listed among the “Plus Beaux Villages de France”, La Flotte curls around its harbour, carried on by the cours Félix Faure and its terraces. The market is held there every morning under a market hall of medieval inspiration: a village that lives all year round, on a human scale.
The property market in La Flotte is one of the deepest on the island: village houses with a patio, merchants' residences on the harbour, family villas over towards the plage de l'Arnérault. Our long-established office, on the cours Félix Faure, knows every street of it.
The history of La Flotte begins at the abbaye des Châteliers: from the twelfth century onwards, Cistercian monks cleared the land, planted vines and organised the salt marshes. The ruins of the abbey church, standing above the strait, remain one of the most moving landscapes on the island.
The harbour then made the fortune of the village, shipping wine and salt to northern Europe. Close by, the fort La Prée, the oldest fortification on the island, raised as early as 1625, is a reminder that the roadstead was a military prize too, long before the ramparts of Vauban.
A sheltered basin lined with terraces, carried on by the tree-planted avenue that leads to the heart of the village: the finest walk in La Flotte.
Under its market hall, one of the finest markets on the island, open every morning: local growers, fishmongers and oyster farmers.
Cistercian ruins from the twelfth century, facing the sea: the farming and spiritual cradle of the island, a landmark at sunset.
The oldest fortification on the island (1625), star-shaped and facing the strait, open to visitors in the summer months and home to the museum of historic graffiti.
Rebuilt in the fifteenth century on twelfth-century origins, battered by the Wars of Religion and then enlarged over the centuries, it watches over the village from behind its façade of 1818.
The museum of local memory: fishing, the platin foreshore, island life as it once was: a precious way into the history of La Flotte.
Everything is done on foot: the market in the morning, the school, the shops along the cours, an ice cream on the harbour in the evening. That completeness, rare on the French coast, explains the attachment of the families who come back generation after generation.
Year-round life here is full and keeps growing stronger: schools, associations, shops open out of season. La Flotte is as much a village of residents as a destination of the heart.
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♡A free and confidential valuation, carried out on site by the BARNES consultant for your village.
Request a valuationDreaming of a life in La Flotte? BARNES Île de Ré, whose long-established office stands on the cours Félix Faure, offers a selection of village houses, harbour-front residences and villas close to the plage de l'Arnérault, in one of the “Plus Beaux Villages de France”… See prices village by village · Our properties for sale in La Flotte
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