Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Vendée Département, Pays de la Loire, France

🇫🇷 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is a commune in the Vendée department, region of Pays de la Loire, western France.

It is situated on the Côte de Lumière. The community originated in 1967 from the unification of two communities on either side of the estuary of the river the Vie, Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie.

Known for its important fishing harbour (specialising in sardines), since 1982 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is also classified as a seaside resort.

Although Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie was three hours from Nantes and ten hours from Paris, the development of railways from the 1880s increasingly allowed holidaymakers to reach the seaside town. A trade union initiative was created in 1922. On 23 January 1967, Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie and Croix-de-Vie merged to create the new municipality of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. The fusion was the idea of Marcel Ragon and Charles Grasset. Ragon became the first mayor of the new municipality while the latter, who had served as deputy mayor of Croix-de-Vie from March 1965 until December 1966, went on to serve under Ragon as deputy mayor of the new municipality until 1995.

Situated on the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, along the côte de Lumière about 70 km from Nantes, 320 from Bordeaux, 450 from Paris and 600 from Lyon, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie covers an area of 10.3 square kilometres.

It is bordered by the communes of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez to the north, Le Fenouiller to the north east, Givrand to the south-east, and Bretignolles-sur-Mer to the south. Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie station has rail connections to Sainte-Pazanne and Nantes.

It was the chef-lieu of the former canton of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, which had an area of 29,192 hectares and contained 14 communes: L'Aiguillon-sur-Vie, Brem-sur-Mer, Bretignolles-sur-Mer, La Chaize-Giraud, Coëx, Commequiers, Le Fenouiller, Givrand, Landevieille, Notre-Dame-de-Riez, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Saint-Maixent-sur-Vie and Saint-Révérend.

Companies • Beneteau – boat manufacturer, founded in 1884 in Croix-de-Vie.