La Chambrette & Bonne Anse

La ChambretteBonne Anse

1. 

   La Chambrette

   estuary

   La Chambrette is a small sandy bay on the Gironde estuary at Le Verdon-sur-Mer, facing the river rather than the open Atlantic, and it only works in one sector: east, north or northeast, side-shore to side-on.

   intermediateadvanced

   In seasonNov to Apr

   The model here carries the month's average wind rather than a count of windy days: it reaches 14.9 kt in November, the strongest month it models for this spot.

   La Chambrette: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on La Chambrette

   On those days the dike keeps the chop out and the water is flat; on every other day drive on to the ocean beaches or south to the Hourtin lake. The catch is the same dike. In a NNW wind you drift toward the southeast dike and the concrete landing stage, and there is a stronger current out by the estuary channel, so this is not a first-season spot. Launch space on the sand shrinks at some tides; accounts disagree, one giving two hours either side of high water, the other only that the beach gets smaller, unconfirmed either way. November to April is the season quoted for it, with a reported average of 22.8 knots, unconfirmed. In July and August it is a supervised family bathing beach, so read the signs and do what the lifeguards say. Rules specific to kites are unknown; nothing like the Hourtin lake zoning is published.

   Getting on the water

   Sandy beach launch inside the small bay at Plage de la Chambrette, Le Verdon-sur-Mer.

   If it goes wrong

   No kite-specific rescue. The beach has lifeguard supervision through the summer bathing season and nothing outside it, so from autumn to spring, which is the season the spot actually works, there is nobody watching the water.

   Room to rig

   Generally lightly used, but the available beach is reduced at some tides.

   Rules and access

   2026: the commune publishes no kite-specific order for Plage de la Chambrette, and no local restriction on kiting at this beach has been found. The summer 7pm kite curfew that circulates attached to this spot belongs to Lacanau Ocean, not here. What does apply is the bathing season: the beach is lifeguard-supervised through the summer, so keep off the marked swimming zone and do what the lifeguards tell you.

   Everything on La Chambrette

2. 

   Bonne Anse

   sea · beginner ok

   Bonne Anse is the bay beside La Palmyre on the Charente-Maritime coast, almost closed off from the ocean, and at high tide it becomes a flat lagoon about 2.5 km by 2.5 km with sand under your feet nearly everywhere.

   intermediateadvanced

   In seasonOct to Mar

   The model here carries the month's average wind rather than a count of windy days: it reaches 14.3 kt in November, the strongest month it models for this spot.

   Bonne Anse: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on Bonne Anse

   That is the whole reason to come: lessons and twin-tip progression on shallow flat water with no swell. The catch is the tide. Ride the flood or the mid-to-high window; on the ebb most of the bay drains to a narrow channel and the current at the mouth gets strong enough to carry you out to sea, so stay away from the opening once the water starts dropping. Wind works from most directions except north and northeast; SE, E, WNW, NW all come in side-on, as do SW and W, and NW goes slightly side-off at the edge of the bay. East is listed both as good and as one to avoid, so treat it with suspicion. Summer sits around 8-20 knots; the statistics make October to March the windier half of the year, unconfirmed locally. There are old shellfish stakes and oyster tables in the middle of the bay, and the port with its rock digue is downwind if you drift south. In season the take-off and landing zone is marked with orange buoys, the signage at the beach entrance explains it, and the beach is packed in July and August.

   Getting on the water

   Access from Avenue de l'Atlantique in Les Mathes / La Palmyre, then about 300 m walk to the beach and the signed kite area in season.

   If it goes wrong

   No lifeguard on this bay: municipal surveillance covers only La Palmyre (Clapet) and Pins de Cordouan. Accrokite teaches on the bay with two boats and a jet ski watching its own lessons and answers on 06 84 74 67 45. Outside the supervised beaches and their hours, swimming and shore-launched watersports are at the user's own risk, so plan on self-rescue and on the flood carrying you back in.

   Room to rig

   Large sandy launch at low to mid tide; very narrow at high tide and on large tidal coefficients.

   Rules and access

   2026: nautical activity in the bay runs under municipal arrete REG_2023_121 ('Baignade et activites nautiques'). It defines a buoyed crossing channel reserved for kitesurf and other traction-wing craft, marked with yellow cylindrical and conical buoys and laid to the west of the channel reserved for dinghies and windsurfers; the commune lays this marking from Bonne Anse beach and shifts it as the shoreline and the sandbanks move. Inside those channels, launching, transiting, parking, tying to the buoys, anchoring any other unregistered craft, all fishing and diving are prohibited, and once the marking is in place swimming is prohibited in the channels and in the port's crossing channel. Motorboats in the bay outside the channels are held to 5 knots, and leaving unregistered nautical craft parked on La Palmyre beach is prohibited. Swimming inside the bay is at bathers' own risk and is banned outright on the ocean side from the La Tremblade boundary to the dune point at Bonne Anse, where the baines and currents are; the two supervised beaches are La Palmyre (Clapet) and Pins de Cordouan, with periods and hours fixed by a separate annual arrete. Beach arrete REG_2026_143 adds, 1 April to 30 September: no dogs on the commune's beaches, no horses on the marked stretch, no wild camping and no fires, metal detectors only between 06:00 and 09:00, and marked dune paths only. Under arrete REG_2021_142, bicycles, fatbikes, onewheels and scooters are banned all year in the dunes and on the beach inside the bay of Bonne Anse.

   Everything on Bonne Anse

• Bordeaux–Mérignac, roughly 85–95km from either shore

Kite bag rules for your airline

Type the carrier you are flying: what it charges for a kite bag, and the year of the policy that says so.

Known for France:easyJetRyanairAir FranceTransavia

Every carrier, with limits and what riders report at the counter →

1. Summer wind here is a gamble and riders say so without hedging: one reports five weeks on this coast with nothing, not even foilable; another that the Atlantic has never delivered for him in July and August, with a few hit-and-miss sessions near Royan. What people bank on is a thermal that fills in from early afternoon, not a wind that is there when you wake up.

   consensus×4 riders

2. Royan and La Palmyre in high summer are full family beaches. The advice riders give each other is to ride late in the day rather than expect space, and to check the bans first — the more touristy stretches of this coast close to kites in July and August.

   consensus×3 riders

3. The bay at Bonne Anse is the forgiving side — sand bottom, shallow, works on everything except north and north-east, sandbars showing at low water — but the thing that catches people is the drain. When it empties on the ebb the current gets strong, so the local advice is to ride the flood.

   majority×2 riders

4. Bonne Anse carries a specific memory that riders still bring up: in April 2003 a sudden gust lofted several kiters in the bay at once, one of them was left tetraplegic, and none of three separate quick-release systems worked. It is credited with pushing France into setting release performance standards.

   majority×2 riders

• Royan was almost entirely destroyed by Allied bombing during the 1945 Liberation fighting and rebuilt in the 1950s as an architectural showcase — the 'École de Royan' — blending Art Deco and Brazilian-modernist influences, centred on the Notre-Dame church and the Palais des Congrès.
• The Phare de Cordouan, built 1584–1611 seven kilometres offshore, is the oldest lighthouse still in operation in France and is nicknamed the 'Versailles of the Seas'.

What we could not settle. Ride here? These are the gaps worth filling.

• Is 'La Chambrette & Bonne Anse' the name riders actually use for this area?
• What does the Royan-Le Verdon ferry cost in 2026, and how often does it run?
• What does a bed cost around La Chambrette and Bonne Anse?
• Is La Chambrette easy to work from and to visit alone?