“Bend your legs Nathan!” But no, not the snow plow otherwise you will fall! And help yourself a bit with your sticks to push…”. The sentence, a little authoritative but banal when pronounced in a ski resort, is a little less so in a Vendée seaside resort. And yet, it is in this unusual setting of dunes and pines that Nathan is about to cover several kilometers on skis… on wheels, called skike. Under the eyes of his grandma, who films everything with her cell phone and continues to shout advice to him, the teenager does not seem frankly reassured on these funny rollerblades, which would offer the same sensations as cross-country skiing on snow. “It’s a bit difficult to move forward and find your balance,” he says, before heading towards the beach, a few tens of meters away. But hey, I’ll get there eventually! »
Skiing, tobogganing on pine needles, snowshoeing or dog sledding… For the past fifteen years, the commune of La Barre-de-Monts-Fromentine in Vendée has been offering a rich program of activities original on the occasion of the All Saints and February holidays. While the department is one of the territories farthest from the slopes, the municipality did not wait for global warming to melt the snow to bring back “winter sports to the sea”. “We lack a little relief, but these activities have found their audience, with residents and tourists, smiles Serge Landais, deputy mayor in charge of cultural, sports and associative events, who recalls that ski descents were organized there. several decades ago on the Dune du Pilat. With each edition, everything is complete. Some children practice more here than skiing! Traders also play the game, some of them offering mulled wine. »
“Much more reasonable” prices
Glasses on their eyes “to avoid getting caught in the sand”, Louis and Marius are preparing to live their first experience in sled dogs, in this case a small kart. A highly requested hike of several kilometers in the forest, at a speed that can exceed 20km/h, that their mother Séverine might not have been able to offer them otherwise. “When they were little, we went to the Massif Central but it was immediately 5 or 6 hours away, with a budget that rose very quickly for four people, says the mother, originally from Loire-Atlantique. There, at least, the rates are much more reasonable, 50 euros for two, and there is no need to pay for travel or accommodation. So of course, the setting is perhaps not so exotic…”
For the dogs, who yelp with impatience before the start, it’s not the same atmosphere either, nor the same “working” conditions. While they don’t need small boots to protect their paws like at altitude, you have to be careful here of the heat stroke, while temperatures of more than 15°C have been recorded in recent days… “With the snow problems, even mountain mushers are now forced to train in the forest, reports Jean-Marc Tatu, president of the Sports et Chiens Nordiques de Vendée association. races, such as Great Odyssey, see some of their stages truncated for lack of snow. It is very worrying. »
The small group coming up from the beach, real snowshoes on their feet, seems far from these preoccupations. Despite the gray sky and the light rain, most hikers return delighted from their two-hour walk (for 2 euros) along the ocean. “It was really great, it’s a bit the same feeling as on the snow but more stable, confirms a participant. You have to keep your legs a little apart and walk straight: on the sand, it’s much more pleasant and more fun than in hiking shoes! “. Probably greener, too, than on artificial snow.