Quelques maisons à Noirmoutier

A majority of the houses I saw on the island of Noirmoutier had sky-blue shutters, gates, and other trim. I think that's a feature you see all along France's west — Atlantic — coast. When some people around Saint-Aignan started painting their shutters blue a few years ago, one of our neighbors told me, with regret in her voice, that that blue color used to be seen only in coastal areas.

Nearly all the houses are white-washed — chaulées, as chaux is the word for whitewash. The clean white exteriors and sky-blue shutters give the whole island a neat, well-maintained look. The Michelin guide describes the town of Noirmoutier-en-l'Île as the island's « blanche capitale ». These are photos I took in the peaceful hamlet, or neighborhood, called Le Vieil. Several scenes in the 1972 Claude Sautet movie César et Rosalie, one of my favorites, were filmed here.

Here's a house with shutters and the front gate painted in a deeper shade of blue. It was almost shocking to me when I saw it, because it was an exception that really stood out. "That color doesn't look right," I thought to myself. If all the shutters on these houses are closed up tight, it's because two-thirds of the island's housing stock is made up of résidences secondaires.

And here's another exception — il n'y a pas de règle sans exception. A Noirmoutier tourist site I just read describes Le Vieil in these terms: "Everywhere are small white houses with blue shutters facing the south to expose their gardens to the sun and fill the air with the scents of their seasonal flowers. Take advantage of the calm village... to enjoy a peaceful walk through its narrow streets lined with charming fishermen’s houses."