Now we are flying solo, just the 2 of us. We left San Sebastian to head back into France for our 3 night stop in La Rochelle. We needed a stop for lunch, so popped into the town of Saintes, an historic town, apparently over 2000 years old with some Roman ruins. We opted not to explore too much but did think the Sainte-Pierre Cathedral was worth a look. It was rather impressive both inside and out and listed as an Historic Monument.

Then it was time to move onto La Rochelle, a city on the west coast, and a sea port on the Bay of Biscay, part of the Atlantic Ocean, and was once one of the greatest port cities of France. Our apartment was typically French, quite small, 2 stories but quite well situated for walking into the old town.

We wandered through the streets of the old town and all along the port area. The medieval Town Hall is the oldest town hall in France and quite impressive both inside and out.

The Grosse Horlage (clock tower) marks the entrance of the port to the old town and dates back to the 16th century.

The 3 historic towers that stand at the entrance to the harbour are listed as national monuments and form part of the towns defences against invasion from the sea. The largest, the St Nicholas Tower has walls up to 8 metres thick and also contains a chapel. The smaller, The Chain tower was built between 1604 and 1763. The 3rd tower, the Lantern Tower (round one) is the only medieval lighthouse on the Atlantic Coast that is still standing and was converted into a prison in the 17th century.

The Harbour area has an abundance of bars and restaurants that we HAD to pop into, and there were plenty of rather large yachts. PLEASE REMEMBER TO CLICK EACH PHOTO TO SEE THEM PROPERLY! We still haven’t worked out how to change the settings, bloody WordPress

Jean and Francoise came to stay with us for a night and we enjoyed a lovely dinner in the Old Town. and then had to walk off dinner whilst admiring the pretty colours of the sunset.

The following day we decided to leave the mainland and check out the Ile-de-Re, an island you reach by paying 16euros to travel across a bridge. Luckily, we had Jean with us with his credit card as the toll booth would not take cash and didn’t like our Aussie credit card at all. How rude! It is a very popular holiday spot for Parisians and EVERYONE rides bikes. It was quite busy and it wasn’t even true “holiday season”. It is only 30 kms long, so quite small. Our first stop was La Flotte, a small village with a pretty port and it was a good coffee stop.

Next stop was ARS-en-Re. The church and its rather weird spire is the focal point of the village. We decided at Ars that it was time for lunch so we opted for a crepe complet with a pichet of cidre,(a crepe with ham, cheese and egg and a jug of apple cider). Yummo!

Last stop of the tour, and our favourite was the pretty village of St Martin. It had a very lovely old town as well as the large port. The village has extensive fortifications and a citadel built in the 16th Century to defend the west coast from an English attack that never came!

It was a good day and a nice visit to the island but we could only imagine what July and August would be like. Way too many people and way too many bikes…not for us thank you!

We enjoyed our stay in La Rochelle but maybe a little too touristy for us, then it was onto Vannes.

So it’s that time again.

Time for an aperitif!

A Bientot

lots of love

Greg and Rhonda

xxxx