[3] Arvert is located some 14 km north-west of Royan and 8 km south of Marennes in the heart of the Peninsula of Arvert and the Royannnais Natural Region in the continental section of the Côte de Beauté and near the famous Marennes-Oléron Oyster basin between the Seudre, Gironde, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Arvert has an area of 2,622 hectares consisting largely of agricultural land, forests (the edge of the Forest of la Coubre) and reclaimed land (the city centre and the main villages of Piochet, Maine-Amouroux, Dirée, Villeneuve, le Boudignon, Avallon, and the oyster ports of Coux and Grève à Duret).

The eastern part of the commune directly borders the Seudre estuary and is made up of oyster farms within the famous Marennes-Oléron basin.

The commune has a low relief, being formed of a Cretaceous plateau with a slightly wavy border against the Seudre marshlands.

It is partially dry (Pré des Landes is a relic of the former Gulf of Arvert which became the Barbareu Pond in the Middle Ages) drained by small rivers (Le Grand Ecours).

The La Rochelle – Île de Ré Airport, 50 kilometres north, has services to some major French cities such as Paris and Lyon as well as the British Isles and Northern Europe.

Although a first village appeared in Roman times, it was only from the 12th century that it grew in importance and a monastic community was established built using a grant from the Lord of Mornac.

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 accelerated the exodus of Protestants from the peninsula despite the ban on leaving France imposed on them.

On 21 February 1687 three boats loaded with fugitives leaving Mornac, Chaillevette, and La Tremblade were immobilized by soldiers on the Seudre.

Occupied by German troops during the Second World War, the village was the scene of heavy fighting during the liberation of the Royan pocket in April 1945.

After the 1831 organic law mayors were appointed (by the king for communes with more than 3,000 inhabitants, by the prefect for smaller) but councillors were elected by censal suffrage for six years.

It was on 28 March 1882 that the current law on municipal organization was passed which governed the principle of election of the mayor and the deputy by the council whatever the size of the commune (except for Paris).

It is managed by a SIVOM (Syndicat intercommunal à vocations multiples) and aims to accommodate children outside school times.

It is a Summer camp without accommodation offering crafts, expression workshops, games, and activities (tree climbing, swimming, horseback riding, etc.).

The transmitters at Royan-Vaux-sur-Mer and Niort-Maisonnay allow the reception of 18 free channels of Digital terrestrial television (TNT) across the whole commune including the local France 3 Poitou-Charentes station.

The restructuring of the market place, initiated in the early 2010s, resulted in the construction of modern halls with simple lines and openwork.

[28] An "Employment point" was set up in 1992 at La Tremblade to attempt to regulate this problem and helping people adapt to changes in the labour market.

Working in partnership with the Employment office of Pays Royannais, the Employment centre of Royan, seasonal workers office, and the local Pays Royonais, it provides access to job offers, helps with some tasks (e.g. resume writing, preparing for job interviews) and participates in collective briefings.

Trades and services are booming as a consequence of the development of the area and the benefits of tourism which does not only concern the coastal communities.

The facade retains some architectural elements dating from the 12th century: two beams of seven columns surmounted by capitals and some corbels.

The church, which is very plain, consists of a large nave covered with a plastered vault lowered and lit by a series of bays which are sometimes ogival and sometimes semicircular where stained glass windows were placed in the taste of the 19th century.

The Reformation was implanted early in the Arvert peninsula which was open to the sea and consequently to the region and new ideas from maritime hawkers and traders from northern European countries.

Pressed to give up their "mistakes", the Protestants were denied their place of worship by an edict of the Conseil du Roi (King's council) on 2 March 1682.

With no building available, worship was then celebrated in private houses or in the open air, until that practice was specifically prohibited by an edict of King Louis XIV dated 23 March 1683.

Persecution against the Protestants, always a reality, dropped in intensity thanks to the protection of the Marquis de Sénecterre, Marshal of France and Governor of Saintonge.

The sale of a plot of land at Avallon (a small port then located a short distance from the town) by Martine Pasdejeu allowed the construction of a first house of prayer and the benefactor was sentenced to detention in the hospice of La Rochelle.

It took three days of fierce fighting to finally obtain the capitulation of the last German troops entrenched in their bunkers in the Forest of la Coubre.

The commune is located in the linguistic area of Saintonge, a dialect belonging to the family of Langues d'oïl branch of the Romance languages, which also includes French, Angevin, Picard, and Poitevin with which it is often grouped in the broader classification of Poitevin-Saintongeais.

Pork preparations dominate the regional cuisine: The Saintonge kitchen includes many recipes for cagouilles, the local name of the brown garden snail.

Traditional desserts are from peasant cuisine: Millas (cornflour cake, found in much of the South-West of France), galette charentaise (Charente waffle) in Charentes-Poitou butter, or "merveilles" (doughnuts).