The Île d'Yeu is an island just off the Vendée coast of western France. It covers an area of 23 km (8.9 sq mi) and had a population in 1999 of 4,788.
The island's two harbours, Port-Joinville in the north and Port de la Meule, located in a rocky inlet of the southern granite coast, are famous for the fishing of tuna and crayfish.
Neolithic markings in the native stone and an unusual concentration of megalithic dolmens and menhirs attest to the is...
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The Île d'Yeu is an island just off the Vendée coast of western France. It covers an area of 23 km (8.9 sq mi) and had a population in 1999 of 4,788.
The island's two harbours, Port-Joinville in the north and Port de la Meule, located in a rocky inlet of the southern granite coast, are famous for the fishing of tuna and crayfish.
Neolithic markings in the native stone and an unusual concentration of megalithic dolmens and menhirs attest to the island's early sanctity. Whether or not its inhabitants were evangelised at the beginning of the fourth century by Martin of Vertou and Saint Hilaire, Irish monks from Bangor dedicated their monastery on the Île d'Yeu to Hilaire; Saint Amand, from Poitou received early training there, but it was destroyed by Viking raiders in the ninth century.
During the tenth century, monks from Marmoutier near Tours and monks of Saint-Cyprien at Poitiers built a new monastery and dedicated it to Saint Stephen. The castle built on an islet linked to the coast...
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