Vendée Miniature, brilliant idea for the odd rainy day!

We were having one of those rainy afternoons that are fab for your garden, not quite so for a four year old cooped up in the house.  Seemed the ideal occasion to nip down to Brétignolles sur Mer to visit Vendée Miniature.  This model village is housed under one roof and over was 15 years in the making!

There are 650 little figurines dotted around the village.  Every 10 minutes or so the lights go down, the village slowly awakes, & the steam engine does its’ rounds, the kids just loved this bit!  Strategically placed steps are placed around the village so the kids can get a better look.

I loved the smell of burning incense wafting around the cemetery, nice touch!  The 3m high church is spectacular, have a nosy inside, it’s packed to the rafters.  My favourites were the Quincaillerie, right down to the titchy poster for Sewing Machines,  And the Epicerie corner shop with its’ miniature glass jars of old-fashioned sweets and Blédina baby formula.

The houses are meticulously reproduced using local schiste stone, which is what our cottage was also built from some hundred years ago.

If you race around the village, you’ll have done the whole thing in a quarter of an hour, so take your time to visit, because the attention to detail is fabulous.  Our son is only four and he was mesmerised, as were all the kids I saw that day.

No photos or videos are allowed inside by the way, so thanks to the lovely lady at the desk who sent me these pics for the blog!

Vendée Miniature, 50 Rue du Préneau, 85470 Bretignolles sur Mer

Adults 7€30 & Kids (5 – 12) 4€50

Open June, July, August from 10 am to 7 pm

Open September from 10 am to 12 noon, and 2 pm to 6.30 pm, closed Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

Tags: brétignolles sur mer, Vendée Miniature

This entry was posted on Samedi, juin 5th, 2010 at 08:16 and is filed under Leisures & Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Vendée Miniature, brilliant idea for the odd rainy day!”

1. Alison Hoa dit :

   10/30/2011 à 13:52

   nice site you got here ill be sure to bookmark it and tell all my friends.
2. Trevor dit :

   11/07/2010 à 09:25

   Excellent. It is so refreshing to find a personal view on the attractions in the Vendee. This is not my first visit to your site and it certainly wont be my last. Trevor.
3. college scholarship dit :

   06/14/2010 à 02:41

   I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
4. Darjeeling Honeymoon Tour – A Memorable Experience – Steam Shower dit :

   06/13/2010 à 23:50

   [...] Vendée Miniature, brilliant idea for the odd rainy day! | Mary's Vendée [...]
5. Mary PAUL dit :

   06/08/2010 à 18:01

   This site is brilliant, I have visited the Vendee in the past, however was unaware that the Vendee has so much more to offer than what I discovered on my previous visits, the information is great and allows my children to plan activities in advance, Thank you soo much, it takes pressure of me trying to guess what they want to do and puts the planning in their hands, We are all looking forward to a fun filled, stressfree holiday!!!
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   06/07/2010 à 00:38

   [...] Vendée Miniature, brilliant idea for the odd rainy day! [...]
7. How To Turn Your Children Into Exercise Program? dit :

   06/05/2010 à 09:21

   [...] Vendée Miniature, brilliant idea for the odd rainy day! | Mary's Vendée [...]

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