Dog-Friendly Parks & Walks on Île de Ré

The UNESCO-listed Vauban fortifications wrap Saint-Martin-de-Ré in a star-shaped ring of ramparts, ditches and grassy glacis, and the path that runs along and around them is the best walk in any of the island's villages. The grassy outer slopes are wide, flat and open, perfect for a long leashed walk with sea views on one side and the old town on the other. The circuit takes roughly an hour at a dog's pace and connects to the harbour, so you can finish on a café terrace. It is a living history lesson and a genuinely beautiful walk in equal measure. Dogs must be on a lead but the grass underfoot and the breeze off the water make this a favourite of local dog owners morning and evening.

The salt marshes of the northwest of the island are the most distinctive walking landscape on Île de Ré: a chessboard of shallow salt pans, dykes and causeways worked by hand for centuries to harvest fleur de sel. Flat gravel paths run between the pans for kilometres, ideal for a long, calm walk with the dog on a lead, with herons, avocets and egrets feeding in the water and the famous Ars church spire on the horizon. This is a protected bird habitat, so dogs must stay leashed and on the paths, but the openness and the salt-scented air make it one of the great island walks. The donkeys 'in trousers' (ânes en culotte), a local tradition once used to work the marshes, are sometimes seen near the salt cooperatives.

Behind the long Atlantic beach at Le Bois-Plage runs a band of maritime pine forest and stabilised dunes laced with shaded sandy paths. This is the island's best hot-weather dog walk: where the marshes and ramparts are fully exposed, the pine woods give cool shade even in high summer, and the sandy trails are soft underfoot. The forest connects directly to the beach and the cycling network, so you can combine a shaded loop with a run on the sand outside the summer beach ban. Dogs should be on a lead near the dune conservation areas, which are fragile and signposted, but the woodland paths are quiet and the salt-pine air is wonderful. A favourite of families staying in the Bois-Plage campsites and rentals.