vendee globe

Once every four years the Vendée hosts the Vendée Globe, the world’s most prestigious round-the-world single handed yacht race. The competitors leave Les Sables d'Olonne in November and return without stopping and with no assistance.
The 2008 race starts on November the 9th at 13.02 and the 30 protagonists from around the world will push their sixty-foot super yachts to the point of destruction in order to be the first home.
This event showcases the Vendée to the world, and the Vendéens take it very seriously. Their publicity machine is working overtime with huge buildings in Paris being lit with the Vendée Globe emblem, and television crews from around the world being invited to cover the occasion. Every school in the Vendée is issued with publicity packs for each child, including brochures, plans, DVD’s and a lot more. Even the auto route toll charges have been suspended for the 3 weeks leading up to the start of the race, and the parking charges have also been cancelled everywhere in Les Sable d'Olonne for the same period.
The Vendée Globe village is contained within the Port de Plaisance and is open for 3 weeks before the start of the race. The Village is packed full of free information, with posters, stickers and brochures that anywhere else in the world would be for sale, here being given away without charge. There is a state of the art interactive sailing simulator to test your virtual sailing skills and videos everywhere. Of course all of the boats with their skippers are there for you to take a close look at, and believe it or not everything is FREE.
During the race the village closes down, reopening again just before the race leaders arrive home.

It’s a show not to miss.

If you can't make it to Les Sables d’Olonne you can follow everthing on their excellent website www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ which contains some of the best video you will find on any website of its ilk.