Situated on the west coast of France on the Atlantic Ocean coast, The Vendée region is split into three parts with the area having a population of 620,000.
Le Grand Departure will start on Saturday July 2nd 2011 at the Passage du Gois and sees an opening stage of 180 kilometres to Mont des Alouttes.
A 23km team trial is planned for the second stage in Les Essarts before the third stage starts in Olonne-sur-Mer.
The 2010 Tour starts in Rotterdam, Holland with Liege, strongly tipped to be the start city for 2012. Corsica is being forecast as the start of the 2013 Tour with Barcelona for 2014.