La Baule, or La Baule-Escoublac, is a city in the département of Loire-Atlantique, in the region of Pays de la Loire, in France. It is one of the most popular and longest beaches on the French Atlantic coast, and it prides itself of being "one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe". It is bordered by the two smaller beach-towns of Le Pouliguen and Pornichet.
Understand
Get in
By car
La Baule is about one hour drive from Nantes.
By train
La Baule-Escoublac train station is accessible directly by high-speed train from Paris (Montparnasse station) in three hours. You can also reach it directly from the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in about four hours. From Nantes, traveling with the regional train (TER) is slightly longer but cheaper, and no reservation is needed.
Get around
See
The beach is 8 km long, and has fine, white sand, and very little waves. The best time to go there is July and August, when the water temperature gets to 20 degrees Celsius or more. The rest of the year, it is much colder.
Do
When you want to go swimming, you should check the tide schedule because when it is low, you can walk for half an hour and only get knee-deep in the water. On the west side, towards Pornichet, the tide is less important, there are more waves and the sand is less fine.
Buy
The main shopping street, in the middle of La Baule, is the Avenue du Général de Gaulle.
Eat
Crêpes restaurant (crêperies) are numerous and cheap. Seafood is also a good choice: mussels, prawns, crab...