Noirmoutier-en-l'Île 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 Sun 17 May (range 4.7m). 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.

Noirmoutier is a tidal island — almost. A permanent bridge connects it to the Vendée mainland, but every day the Atlantic tide puts on a demonstration of just how conditional that connection historically was. The Passage du Gois, a 4.5 km causeway further south, disappears twice daily beneath the sea. The Gois is not a metaphor or a tourist attraction: it is a working road that requires a tide table to use safely. The crossing window at the Passage du Gois is approximately two hours on either side of low water — a total of about four hours per tidal cycle when the causeway is passable. Outside that window, the road lies under water deep enough to swamp a car within minutes. The tide returns fast here: the Atlantic flood on a 4–5 m spring tide can cover the causeway at a rate perceptible in real time. Several cars are recovered from the Gois every year. High refuge posts — échappées — are spaced along the causeway for pedestrians caught out, but they are the last resort, not the plan. SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine) publish the official Passage du Gois crossing schedule. That is the authoritative source for Gois timing — not this page, not a tide app, not a Google result. The schedule is specific to the Gois and accounts for the local tidal phasing. The island itself covers about 50 km², primarily flat, with salt marshes (marais salants) producing Fleur de Sel — the prized hand-harvested sea salt that has been collected here since the medieval period. The salt pans are tidal in origin: seawater flooding controlled channels, then concentrated by evaporation. The harvest season runs June to September. The mean tidal range at Noirmoutier is approximately 4.0–4.5 m (slightly less than Saint-Nazaire due to the island's position on the outer Vendée coast). Spring tides extend the range to around 5.0 m. The island has several beaches — Bois de la Chaise, Les Dames — that transform with the tide, exposing wide sand and rock platforms at low water. Tide predictions are generated from Open-Meteo Marine data (accuracy ±45 minutes, ±0.2–0.3 m). For the Passage du Gois, use only the official SHOM crossing schedule.