La Rochelle tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 06:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/Paris local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Mon 18 May (range 5.1m). Next neap on Fri 22 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

La Rochelle is the principal city of Charente-Maritime — a medieval harbour town that has operated as a port since the 12th century and still does. The Vieux-Port, the old harbour encircled by the towers of Saint-Nicolas, de la Chaîne, and de la Lanterne, is a functioning marina and tourist hub simultaneously: pleasure boats, small fishing vessels, and the ferries to Île de Ré and Île d'Oléron all use water that the tide covers and uncovers twice a day. The tidal regime at La Rochelle is macrotidal and semidiurnal. Mean range in the harbour is approximately 5.0 m; spring range reaches 5.8–6.0 m. High water occurs roughly 5 hours 10 minutes after Dover standard — the tidal wave has travelled from the Atlantic, refracted around the Brittany coast, and reached the Poitevin shelf. The pattern is reliable and the SHOM annuaire des marées gives precise tables for each season. At low water on a spring tide, the inner basin of the Vieux-Port drops by nearly 6 metres from the high-water mark on the quay walls — the tide-stained stonework of the Saint-Nicolas tower records this history visually every day. The old harbour's medieval towers framed the entrance to the harbour chain (the chaîne) that could be stretched between Saint-Nicolas and de la Chaîne towers to block hostile vessels. The chain is gone but the geometry of the entrance is unchanged. Ships coming in from the Pertuis d'Antioche pass through the gap between the towers on a north-south axis; the tidal stream running through the entrance produces a detectable cross-current at mid-tide. The Vieux-Port inner basin dries on big ebb tides. The Pertuis d'Antioche, the channel between Île de Ré to the north and Île d'Oléron to the south, is the primary maritime access route to La Rochelle from the Atlantic. Tidal streams in the Pertuis run 1.5–2 knots in the main channel; at the constrictions between the islands and the mainland the stream is stronger. Sailing from La Rochelle to Île de Ré on the flood is a 45-minute reach that reverses into a beat if the ebb has turned by the time you leave; the tide planning matters. The Île de Ré bridge runs 3 km across the Pertuis Breton north of La Rochelle. Alongside the bridge route, year-round ferries cross from the Vieux-Port and from La Pallice (the industrial port 3 km west of the old city). The island is flat, agricultural (wine, salt, and vegetables), and laced with 170 km of cycling paths. The eastern dike road along the salt-marsh flank of the island follows the edge of the intertidal zone; at high water the sea is visible over the dike crest. At low water, the exposed mud is studded with mussel bouchots — wooden post-and-rope structures carrying mussel colonies — and oyster tables arranged in the tidal zone by concessionaires who operate on a tide-synced schedule. La Rochelle's Musée Maritime, at the Vieux-Port outer quay, includes a submarine, a destroyer, a lightship, and various small craft accessible for boarding. The vessels sit in the tidal water of the outer harbour; at low water on a spring tide the submarine's free-flood casing visibly marks the water level differential. The aquarium, a few hundred metres south of the Vieux-Port, is one of the largest in Europe by tank volume and focuses on Atlantic and worldwide ocean ecosystems. For kayakers, the Pertuis Breton (north of Île de Ré) and the Pertuis d'Antioche offer offshore flat-water touring with tidal current assistance in the right direction. The standard local route runs La Rochelle Vieux-Port → north end of Île de Ré → east coast of the island → La Flotte → return. This route is manageable as a long day on a spring flood with the current; against the ebb it becomes a grind. Check the tide before launching. Tide data for La Rochelle comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API (±45 min / ±0.2–0.3 m). SHOM provides authoritative tables for navigational and tidal-window planning.