www.holidays-la-rochelle.co.uk A seaside resort with character and charm, La Rochelle offers its delightfully-preserved Old Town centre together with an entertaining combination of beaches and boat trips plus a half-dozen or so museums and attractions. Not surprisingly, it is very popular, and accommodation is booked up several months in advance for the summer season.

One of the jewels in the crown of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s dowry, the sheltered port was granted an independent charter in 1199, and flourished during the medieval period. With the arrival of Protestantism in the 16thC, it became a Huguenot stronghold and later a thorn in the side of Richelieu. He blockaded the harbour in 1627, and brought the town to its knees with a 15-month siege: just 5,000 of the original 28,000 inhabitants survived. Trade with the New World – Canada, America and the West Indies – revived La Rochelle’s fortunes. Shipowners and merchants rebuilt the town, often using granite ballast to construct their splendid residences.

The town centre is compact and easy to explore. Its medieval walls were largely demolished by Richelieu, but an 18thC archway, the Porte de la Grosse-Horloge, marks the entrance to the Old Town off quai du Pierre. Head south down cours des Dames for Tour de la Chaîne, a 14thC watch tower at the narrow entrance to the harbour basin. A hefty chain used to be towed across to its twin, Tour Saint-Nicolas, to close the inner harbour at night. The elevated old sea wall, rue sur les Murs, leads to a third tower, Tour de la Lanterne, once a primitive lighthouse with a fire burning inside. La Rochelle’s beach suburb lies to the west.The grid of streets north of the Grosse Horloge are packed with splendid medieval buildings, Renaissance mansions and 17th-18thC town houses. Arcaded rue du Palais is the main shopping street, off which rue Dupaty leads east to the Hôtel de Ville with a wonderful Renaissance courtyard. Rue des Augustins features the two-storey loggia and turrets of the Maison Henri II; and rue Fleuriau is home to the fascinating Musée du Nouveau Monde, its displays of prints, maps and assorted Americana laid out in the former home of a wealthy merchant family. The 18thC Cathédrale is of slight interest, but there is another museum in its vicinity: the Musée des Beaux-Arts, rue Gargoul-leau, with an important portrait of Martin Luther by Cranach the Elder.

Back down on the front, the Musée Maritime offers a 76-m frigate for inspection in the Bassin des Chalutiers; and there is a hi-tech Aquarium at the Port des Minimes. A children’s favourite is the Musée des Automates, rue de la Desirée, with an entrancing crowd of mechanical puppets; also the neighbouring Musée des Modèles Réduits, featuring scale models of boats, trains, planes and more.

Reached by a causeway (toll) or bus-boat connection from the mainland, the Ile de Ré (www.holidays-iledere.co.uk) is shaped like a prawn, its body surrounded by superb beaches and its saltmarsh tail hooked around oyster beds. Sablonceaux is a popular spot just over the causeway with beaches, restaurants, bicycle and moped hire. Moving north, Ré bears an uncanny resemblance to a Greek island with its whitewashed buildings, vines, fishing boats and feathery fields of asparagus. Saint-Martin, the capital, has a fortified harbour guarded by one of Maréchal Vauban’s many citadels. This one served as a prison and transit point for criminals condemned to hard labour in the colonies. The Musée Naval et E-Cognacq presents maritime history and local crafts displays in the 15th-17thC Hôtel Clerjotte.

Another day trip is the lle d’Aix, www.iledaix, a real island only accessible by boat – there are no cars here. Just 3 km long, it mixes beach and marsh, pines, oaks, charming cottage gardens and the town of Le Bourg, where Napoleon spent his last days on French soil before exile to St Helena. The Musée Napoléon is stuffed with the Emperor’s clothes and memorabilia; and there is a Musée Africain where the stuffing is largely wildlife and weaponry. There are ferries from La Rochelle, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, Ile d’Oléron and La Tranche-sur-mer.