Thursday 14th June, 128 miles, sunny, cloudy, sunny !
After a meeting in Nantes, we finally managed to de-camp and left the flowery campsite by the Loire to head south again, to La Rochelle.
It took about 4 hours with the inevitable stop for emails at what B calls Mucky D’s (McDonalds) and a few diversions – one where I failed to trust Satnag to keep us off the toll roads, and others looking for campsites.
Today’s lessons – always look at the full route, not just the page you started on, and always stick to Plan A. After trying B and C we reverted to Plan A and it was a good one. So now we are on a beachside campsite on the Ile de Ré – an island next to La Rochelle, connected by a 2 mile bridge, which B drove over this time. He then picked a great spot under a large pine tree – yes, we need shade now – hurrah!!
We sat in the sun from 5pm for a couple of hours and then had an amazingly good Thai soup from a supermarket carton. Yes, really – camping does this to you – the only “proper” cooking intended is on the barbie – yet to be done due to divine intervention (rain) and now campsite regulations (don’t set fire to the hedges).
Then we walked along the seafront path (beware of cyclists, they behave about as well as the drivers – some good, many bad). We went to a bar so B could watch the second half of the Spain/Ireland match and at the same time I could watch the lovely pink sunset. Definitely a man/woman discussion theme.
How pretty is this!
Friday 15th June, Kymi 31km, cloudy start, sun, cloudy finish
This morning I did some exercises on the beach – the knees were complaining after 3 preceding mornings of walking/jogging – this getting older lark is no joke, ibuprofen here we come. Anyway it was warm but breezy and cloudy. The sun finally forced its way out after I had done my emails and booked TGV tickets to Paris from Poitiers for next Monday for 3 meetings. Now all we have to do is get to Poitiers and find a campsite on Sunday – no worries says B – he always says that, and I always worry!
Then out came Kymi and off we went, back over the big bridge, to La Rochelle. You can fly there from Southampton – I did once to do a French language course, and never saw the town. B said I should, so we headed for the old port. More back seat navigation! We are still getting used to the idea that if you have a scooter you can park pretty much anywhere you like. So, stupidly we parked up way too soon and left Kymi in the sun. Doh!
We visited the first of 3 towers at the port, had a large lunch and then visited the other 2. I lost count of the number of spiral staircases we went up and down, let alone the number of steps. All I can say is that I don’t feel guilty about my Moules Frites lunch.
3 towers at the port of La Rochelle
The furthest tower in the photo is the Lantern Tower – a medieval lighthouse which was also used as a prison. In each room there is carved graffiti left by the prisoners. On the top floor we found one left by an unknown sailor from Weymouth captured from a Privateer in 1757 – one of B’s ancestors?!
Enjoying lunch!
B finally said he was all toured out…good pun as French for tower is tour…
Back to Kymi and found happily we had proved the point that a light blue pearlised leather seat really does reflect the sun and is only slightly warm to sit on as opposed to the original black one which did rather toast your bits and pieces…With thanks to Hugh and Stew the Glue for a smart piece of upholstery – the quilts help with the air circulation too!