Author: simon

Just over the sea from La Rochelle but with a toll bridge. It’s been on Eileen’s list for a long time and here we are.

But before we do, we must talk bread. Who knew the French are extremely good at it. And as a fully paid up member of the pain fan club it’s heaven. Baguettes, croissants, pastries and so on and so on is just heaven.

Anyway, back to Ile-de-Re – and it was a beautiful late September day.

Meandering, lunching, sitting on the beach is what it’s all about. And dropped in to La Rochelle for the evening – ice cream:

And a sunset over the car park!

Moving again tomorrow.

Who knew there was such a place in France? 30 miles inland from La Rochelle, near where we’re staying is a whole network of little islands and canals. So you have to take a boat trip.

That’s Samuel in charge by the way.

And, of course, followed by lunch.

More light duties in the afternoon – Maillezais Abbey if you’re interested.

Back to the Gites. It’s a hard life!

And Coulon for the evening.

Meant to add a photo of a loaf of bread yesterday – almost the highlight ….

Off we go again. One last look at the castle.

And here we are.

You can see that from Bordeaux, it makes sense to go via La Rochelle. And it really really did. It’s a fabulous town, which Eileen was convinced we’d been to before but I don’t think we have.

And we were able to get coffee and lunch and ice-cream just when we wanted. Which proves the French can do it if they want to!

And finally a brief hi from our friend currently in Copenhagen.

Forecast was pretty lousy, so expectations were low for today. And they were duly met. But at least we’re in France, we thought, so can make up for it with decent coffee, food and drink. Or not!

It was a nice idea to meander around some small towns, and when it rained to dive into a little cafe for coffee or lunch. Except there weren’t any – or they were all closed or only serving lunch when we wanted coffee or whatever.

So let’s go back to St Emilion and book up for a decent dinner.

Ha ha. All fully booked. So off to the supermarket again – what can you make when you don’t have an oven? How about a microwave paella – and you know what – it was one of the best ever!

At least could watch the rain in the castle. Cheers.

An unexpected accolade to begin with – it’s the worst city I’ve ever driven in. Paris, London, Marrakech, Cancun and many others fade into insignificance. It’s huge, busy, lots of bikes, pedestrians and roadworks and no real centre to aim for. So when the satnav said 7 miles and 45 minutes we laughed ……

Anyway, we managed. And parked. And after an hour or so began to get our bearings and began to really like it.

Then headed down to the beach at Arcachon which was a bit far but lovely.

And the best sandcastles we have ever seen.

A couple of French niggles though:

1. Basically you can’t get anything to eat before 7.00. Even in this popular beach town every restaurant was only doing drinks until 7.00.

2. French service in a supermarket was … very French. Do you have small baskets? Non – only massive trolleys. Can you take a massive trolley through the self-serve till because you only have a couple of items? Non. Do cashiers look on as old ladies struggle at the till? Oui. And so on and so on.

But there you go. Who’s moaning?

Heading south towards St Emilion (of great wine fame) and Bordeaux.

To stay in a real live castle.

That’s the view from our apartment. It’s hard to get a sense of it so resorted to a couple of google pics.

But on the way took a detour around St Emilion which we’re guessing is a nightmare when busy….

… but lovely when it isn’t.

Sandwich shop for lunch was cute.

And the owner of the castle left us a bottle of their own wine which we thought was pretty decent.

(and according to our friend Mr Google again, about €15 a bottle)

Angouleme is only about half an hour away, so definitely worth a revisit. We were both absolutely convinced we had been there before, but we are now certain we haven’t. And it’s much nicer than the pics, but here you go.

Had a really nice couple of hours chatting to Ruth and Alan over a glass or three in the evening. Including Alan complaining about the delays at supermarket checkouts because people still pay by cheque!!!!

Wednesday was a bit odd. The weather forecast was terrible – 96% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms all day, so we had visions of making quite deep inroads into our reading. But not a single drop fell all day, even though we were waiting for it.

So headed out to Piegut market which was typically French market – lovely.

Note all the masks even in an outdoor market.

Then to the nearby lakes for a walk. Normally when we encounter a cute creature, the photo is accompanied by “found a friend” or something like that. Not this time – made it’s feelings very clear!

(Crayfish if you’re interested.)

Dinner in La Rochefoucauld with a lovely view.

It’s lovely to be able to sit outside at 10.00pm writing this – it’s about 20 degrees, very dark and totally silent. As I said the other day – it’s just like being on holiday and we could get to like it.

In fact it’s just like being on holiday. Hot and sunny, with a pool and lovely food – what’s not to like.

Local lakes about 20 minutes away.

La Rochefoucauld is our nearest little town (with an enormous castle).

It’s a bit naff to show pictures of food so I haven’t but the creperie is a little reminder of a fabulous lunch – tomato sorbet anyone?

But most of the time has been hanging around the house.

And it’s also great to be able to include the warning for those of a nervous disposition 😀

Finally I mentioned vaccine passports – clearly not universally liked.

Any complaints please contact Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee – ex banker, ex minister, youtuber and perhaps switchboard operator. Our job is to run a restaurant!!!!!

A touring holiday, so plenty of moving on. Sad to leave our wonderfully quirky little house in Chinon, but heading south now. Not far from Angouleme.

Broke the journey in Poitiers, which we’re pretty sure is new to us. Outskirts a bit of a pain to drive through, but the centre was lovely. And great to hear the hum of lots of people out enjoying themselves.

And an anti-vaccine demonstration which happened all over France, but very gentile here. You can’t see it in the photo, but someone brandishing a large Welsh flag as well.

And yet in the supermarket compliance was completely 100%.

Made it to the house.

Here goes. Being on holiday in France certainly helps.

Some decent views on the morning walk.

And a decent breakfast. This is the healthy part – the croissant was demolished earlier.

A bit of (quite a lot of) cultural distraction at Fontevraud Abbey – run by Abbesses rather than Abbots for centuries which is a novelty in itself.

Sitting by the river for a bit of R&R (and dodging the showers).

And a read and siesta…

Decent dinner. What’s not to like? It’s just like being on holiday.