Slowing living in Île de Ré.

Île de Ré is a special place. An Atlantic island, off the south west coast of France, it is just 30km long and accessed by a sweeping bridge.

It’s one of France’s best kept secrets, inherently chic and understated. Little can be found about it online, which is just how the locals like it.

Popular with the Parisians, it’s at its busiest from July to September. The island is second only to Corsica in terms of the amount of hours of sunshine it receives per day.

The island is renowned for its salt marshes and oysters. We spent the week enjoying fresh sea food, wine and the occasional ice cream.

We navigated the island by bike in true French fashion and then parked up and relaxed on the beaches, which shared a striking similarity to our own Norfolk coastline.

There was no packed schedule with museums, amusements or galleries. Instead we simply, and rather intuitively, explored the ports from the popular Saint-Martin-de-Ré to beautiful beaches like Le Bois and the market of d’Ars-en-Ré.

I’m afraid you won’t find a list of must-see places to go on this post. Instead, I’d actively recommend that if you like what you see, then go, relax, explore and take each day as it comes because I think that’s a pretty perfect way to spend a holiday. This week off did me the world of good.

We stayed at Hôtel Atalante Relais Thalasso & Spa via Secret Escapes and flew with Ryan Air.