Christmas in France- Les Herbiers

Les Herbiers is a small city in the countryside of France. The surrounding area is rolling hills and rivers.The city is small and there isn't much to do in the city. Despite being small there are some very nice restaurants and bars. One of the most intriguing bars was La Cervoiserie, which serves a huge variety of craft beers from all around the world. This isn't your typical bar though because it is actually more of a store that also serves. Unfortunately this also means it closes earlier than other bars.

Although there isn't any huge cathedral or castle in Les Herbiers there is a church and small castle.

Church in Les Herbiers, France

At the top of Mont des Alouettes overlooking the city there are two windmills and a chapel at the entrance to a trail complex. These old windmills were used as signals during the war. I took a hiking trail that went around the hill with scenic views of the edge habitat of the park and the surrounding hills and farm land.

Windmill at Mont Des Alouettes

The views are mostly forest and open pasture but this did give me the chance to see one of my favorite birds. Blue tits are small colourful birds. In this forest they mainly stayed in coniferous forest. They move quickly and with the many branches I couldn't get a decent photo.

The countryside of France has many hawks, falcons, egrets and lapwings to see in the trees and fields. 

Lapwing

Outside of the city there are many areas that have hiking trails. The abby near Les Herbiers has a grid of trails associated with the logging activities in an old forest. Bird feeders set up outside of the abby actually attract blue tits and other birds from the area. This forest looks very nice for finding an owl in but I didn't hear any that afternoon and I couldn't stay later into the evening.

Great Tit

Blue Tit and Great Tit at the abby in les Herbiers

Abby in Les Herbiers

La Grotte de Boistissandeau has a small outside chapel and some trails going through the woods. The day we went for a hike there was frost on all of the trees and vegetation from the humidity in the area. Although wildlife was pretty quiet in the area that day there were some Nuthatches and Marsh Tits. Marsh Tits look very similar in appearance and size to Black-capped Chickadees in Canada.

Grotte de Boistissandeau, near Les Herbiers

Holly leaves with frosted edges

 South of Les Herbiers, near L'Orbrie there is a Sentier de la Balingue. This trail is also associated with logging activities. It runs along two river areas. There are large old growth trees in one area with an empty understory from logging activities that have opened up the area. Along the river edges it is rockier and the views of the river are quite open in the winter.

Sentier de la Balingue

Here was my first time seeing a Hoopoe. A bird I had never even heard of but is sort of like a woodpecker with a large crest. Robins are really common birds in Vendee and they are quite adorable. They don't scare easily so it made them quite photogenic.

Robin

Robin

The last trail I did in Les Herbiers was a short loop around Lac de la Tricherie. The lake was quite small and it didn't take long to walk around. The surrounding area is countryside and the trail is well maintained and easy to walk.

Great-crested Grebe

Coot

One thing that helped a lot finding these local trails was being lent a book by a friend. The book about trails in Vendee is quite good for locating trails in the province but some of the trails are better marked than others and the colours of the trail markings don't always match what is in the book. The other downside is that often the trails are actually complexes of multiple routes but only one is shown in the book.