Allées du Mail

The Allées du Mail form an elegant six-hundred-metre seaside promenade lined with pine trees, connecting Concurrence Beach to Parc Franck Delmas. In the 16th century, this space was a vast meadow used for public celebrations, before being laid out for the game of mail — a forerunner of croquet — in the following century. Its current appearance dates from the early 19th century. On one side, a wide lawn adorned with flower beds borders the ocean; on the other, grand early 20th-century seaside villas recall the golden age of sea bathing in La Rochelle. A war memorial to the fallen of the Great War, inaugurated in 1922, stands at the far end of the promenade.