Vendee Globe Yacht Race

[David]

We were thinking of going to Les Sables D'Olonne tomorrow to see the boats before they depart.  However, our neighbours tell us that the town is closed to cars.

Does anyone know if a disabled blue parking badge holder (French issue) needing a wheelchair can park anywhere within easy wheelchair pushing distance of the boats?

Thanks in advance,

David

[Loiseau]

Hi David,

I went on Tuesday.  It was fantastic!

All my local French friends had sighed deeply and said that it was impossible to get there etc.   But it is not entirely true. 
I don't know how well you know Les Sables, but we kept away from the obvious route in (i.e. the dual carriageway from La Roche, and onto the bypass and then off towards the east side of Port Olona, where the "village" is).  We worked out a route from the north-west down through the forest near the coast, to arrive on the La Chaume side of the harbour entrance, and managed fairly easily to find a parking space opposite the post office on the La Chaume seafront, not far from the eastern entrance to Port Olona (the marina).

From there, it was a 15-minute walk past the littls cafes and bars of the marina to reach the "Vendee-Globe Village", which this year is much better than previous times.  Under a huge marquee (Admission free), there is not only detail on the skippers, but also some hands-on stuff for children, who can steer a virtual yacht, haul on ropes, and imagine they are paddling in some cleverly-projected light that makes a patch of the floor look like the sea-bed.  There was also an interesting short film depicting various stages of the race, such as the Doldrums, the icebergs etc, and displays of the unappetising-looking food that sustains the sailors on their trip.

You join a queue to walk down the wooden ramp to the pontoons, from which you get a close-up look of the boats.  My sister and I commented that it would be very difficult for anyone handicapped (we were walking up the "up" ramp behind someone with a walking stick who was making quite heavy weather of it).  We did see one or two people on the pontoons in wheelchairs, but they must have had very beefy helpers in order to make it down and up again.  Plus the edges of the pontoons are not too well-protected, and you are shuffling along with crowds of other people.

I fear I am going to be fairly useless to you concerning parking for disabled.   After we had viewed the boats, we walked further on, along Bd de l'Ile Vertime around the end of the port onto the town quay for lunch, and cut through a fairly large car park just before the Musee du Coquillage.  I am sure I saw some disabled spaces in that car park.  The issue would be getting to it, since I expect traffic is getting worse by the day.  But the town streets are not actually closed; they only will be for Sunday, the day of departure.
Here is a link to a page that lists where the disabled parking spaces are int he whole of Les Sables (no map, unfortunately):  http://www.lessablesdolonne.fr/publicservlet/Telecharge?filename=a2a-10764.pdf

My main piece of advice to anyone visiting would be to get there early in the day, and to avoid the weekend.   And to avoid departure day like the plague!!  We got to La Chaume at 11am on Tuesday, and  were lucky enough to find a space; if we had gone at 10am or just before (I think the "village" opens at 10am) would have been even better.  Crowds were building up in the early afternoon, and as we left La Chaume we could see that there was a huge traffic jam on the Boulevard du Souvenir Francais - the bit of road from La Chaume towards Les Sables and the "village".  (A friend wanting to go from one to the other sat in that for 90 minutes the other day!).  Luckily, we were heading up again through the forest, and managed to cross the jam and make our way north.

Bonne chance anyway!

Angela

 

 

 

 

[serrif]

We have been and followed the signs for Press, VIPs, etc. on the North side and had no trouble. There was a car park and one for disabled which was just across the road from the exhibition. I would suggest you show your disabled card in order to get as close as you can and as said before leave as early as you can.

 Enjoy the day, we were very impressed with the way our 'cousins' put on the show.  If you can manage it take the boat ride too.

  Good Luck

[David]

Angela and Serrif,

Thank you both for your very helpful replies, and thank you Angela also for giving me an insight of what to expect when we get there.

Very kind of you both - thank you again.

I will now plan our route from Bressuire.

David