Although we are about 1½ hour's drive from the coast you can still have a picnic on a beach. The Lac du Cebron, under a 15min drive away, is a swimming lake with a beach and picnic area. It has also recently completed bird watching hides, has a windsurfing school and areas set aside for fishing. If you want other areas for your beach picnic there are 16 available within the region.

We are ideally located for a number of theme parks and attractions. The most famous is Futuroscope, a virtual reality theme park about 55kms away. A fun day out for everyone, although some of the rides do have height restrictions. www.futuroscope.com

For younger children there is the Parc de la Vallée, a water park about 30km away as an option.
www.parcdelavallee.com

Slightly further away is the Parc de Pierre Brune, another theme park for younger children. www.mervent-foret.com
The Grand Parc du Fou is in a medieval set with Vikings, Gladiators, Muskateers and jousting amongst the attractions. www.puydufou.com

The area has a number of animal based attractions.
Vallée des Singes (Monkey Valley) with a variety of roaming primates www.la-vallee-des-singes.fr
Zoo de Doué featuring 70 species of animals www.zoodoue.fr
Zoodyssée with 600 wild European animals www.zoodyssee.com
L’ile aux Serpents a reptile park www.ileauxserpents.com
Les Geants du Ciel (Giants of the Sky) bird displays and spectaculars www.geantsduciel.com
And last but not least Mouton Village – everything to do with sheep www.moutonvillage.info

Known as La Venise Verte, the Green Venice, Marais Poitevin is an area of meadows and marshes, reclaimed from the ocean, crisscrossed by canals and rivers (around 4000km of waterways).
The more interesting part of this region to visit is the north as this is the marshy area, whereas the south is mostly flat agricultural land.
Probably the best way to take in the wooded area waterways and flora and fauna is by hiring a barques (flat bottomed boat / punt) with or without a guide, which are available all around the area. The main villages in the area are Coulon, Arçais and Luçon, and you could take the road train tour from Coulon or a horse drawn carriage tour from La Garette to further explore the area. There are plenty of walks and cycle paths, and again bikes can be hired locally.
It is a very popular visitor area and gets busy, particularly at the weekends – especially in the summer - so is probably best visited during the week if time allows.
www.la-venise-verte.com
www.parc-marais-poitevin.fr

There are also many beautiful gardens to visit locally. Those of the Chateau de St Loup are recreated to their 18th Century origin and include a flower garden, large kitchen / vegetable garden, orangerie and over 1000 fruit trees.