Noirmoutier

A dolmen, several menhirs, and the ruins of a Gallo-Roman villa with its hot baths show that the island must have been occupied at an early date; but the first fact in its recorded history is the foundation of the Benedictine monastery of "Her" by St. Philibert about 680. From this monastery the name Noirmoutier () is derived. Noirmoutier was the location of an early Viking raid in 799, when raiders attacked the monastery of Saint Philibert of Jumièges. The Vikings established a permanent base on the island around 824, from which they could control southeast Brittany by the 840s. In 848, they sacked Bordeaux. From 862 until 882, Hastein used it as a base from which he raided Francia and Brittany. In 1205 the abbey of Notre Dame la Blanche was built at the north extremity of the island to take the place of a Cistercian convent established in the Île du Pilier, at that time attached to Noirmoutier by a dyke. This abbey was ruined by the Protestants in 1562. In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries the island belonged to the La Trémoille family, and in 1650 the territory was made a duchy. and the place of execution of the Royalist Generalissimo Maurice D'Elbée, who faced the firing squad seated in a chair due to wounds accumulated from an earlier battle. St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier was born on this island on 31 July 1796. ==Geography==

The island comprises ten localities and four distinct communes. Its length is approximately , and its width varies from to . Its area of . Noirmoutier appears to be formed of alluvial deposits gradually accumulated around a rock of no great size situated at the meeting-place of the Gascony and Brittany currents. It is referred to as the Island of Mimosas, due to the temperateness of its climate, which allows for the flowering of Acacia dealbata (mimosa) year-round. The island is predominantly salt marsh and salt banks, sand dunes and evergreen oak forests. The communes of the island are grouped into a communauté de communes. The communes are: • Barbâtre • L'Épine • La Guérinière • Noirmoutier-en-l'Île The island has been a site of uninterrupted human habitation since prehistoric times, and is a popular tourist destination. Parts of the island have been reclaimed from the sea. In 2005 it served as the finish of the Tour de France prologue. ==Transport==

The island is most notable for the Passage du Gois, a paved-over sandbank with a length of , one of the routes that connect the island to the mainland. It is flooded twice a day by the high tide. Until the early 1970s, a ferry service operated across the Strait of Fromentine between the La Fosse pier on the island and Fromentine pier on the mainland. This was superseded by the construction of the Noirmoutier Bridge, inaugurated in July 1971. ==Events==

Every year, an international foot race, the Foulées du Gois, is held across it, starting at the onset of the high tide. La "Fête de la Bonnotte" (Bonnotte party) is also an annual festival celebrating the first day of potato harvest on the island of Noirmoutier. ==Infrastructure==

In response to an effort by the French government to add offshore wind projects to the national grid, a 496 MW wind farm is being developed near the island, with a planned commissioning date of 2021. ==Climate==

Noirmoutier experiences an oceanic climate typical of the west coast of France. Both the winters and summers are heavily moderated by the surrounding Atlantic Ocean. There is a low degree of diurnal temperature variation throughout the year, especially in the winter. There is considerably more precipitation in winter compared to summer. The climate is classified as cool dry summer Mediterranean type (Csb), with 3 months with Tm*2>=P. More than 2300h of sun is too high for a typical oceanic climate. ==References==