Brand new 4-bedroom house with two bathrooms, 1 km from the beach — Brem-sur-Mer, Vendée

A kilometre from the beach, in a village set just far enough back from the coast to keep its own life all year. The plot is 352 m² — compact, low maintenance, the sort of garden you enjoy rather than manage — and takes a brand new four-bedroom house at €285,000 all in.

The house is our four-bedroom design with two bathrooms, over two floors with a garage, which is what makes a plot this size work so well: four bedrooms and two bathrooms without giving up the garden. Downstairs there is an open-plan living and dining room opening to the terrace, a fitted kitchen, a bedroom with its own bathroom, a separate WC and a utility room. Three more bedrooms, a second bathroom and another WC are upstairs. The layout can be adapted to suit you.

About Brem-sur-Mer

Brem-sur-Mer is the one village on this coast that is as much about wine as it is about the sea. Vines have been grown here since the fifth century, and in 2011 the vineyard was awarded AOC status as part of the Fiefs Vendéens — light, fresh wines, the whites and rosés made for the seafood landed a few kilometres away. Several of the domaines welcome visitors, and there are marked walking and cycling routes that run through the vines.

The sea is a kilometre off. La Gachère, at the mouth of the Auzance, is a small seafaring hamlet where the river meets the sand, and beyond it the beaches run north to Brétignolles and south towards Olonne. Behind the dunes is the Havre du Payré and a stretch of marsh and estuary that is quiet, birdy and good for kayaking and paddleboarding. For families there is the Parc des Dunes with its pools and slides, and an old oyster hut on the water converted into a summer activity base.

The village has bakeries, shops, restaurants and a market. Brétignolles-sur-Mer is around three kilometres away, Les Sables-d'Olonne about twenty minutes south, and Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie with its railway station twenty minutes north. La Roche-sur-Yon is around forty minutes inland, and Nantes and its international airport a little under an hour and a half.