Meandering in France with no clear destination.... (1 Viewer)

[DBK]

Try isle D'Oleron. Great for cycling....and the seafood........mmmmmmmmmmm drooling!

We should be there soon. Probably heading for the municipal site at the top of the island.

 

[cliffanger]

Try isle D'Oleron. Great for cycling....and the seafood........mmmmmmmmmmm drooling!

We visited Oleron last year, but we prefer the Ile de Re. The sites didn't seem as nice but were no less expensive. The cycling is brilliant on both islands but the site we are on is, in our opinion as close to perfection as you can get!

We cycled into the market today, @Mousy will remember this .... edit - can't upload photos, but there was a magnificent show of fish, cakes and cheese - the only bad thing here is wifi reception, so you will just have to use your imagination!

We've spent a brilliant day cycling and beach sunbathing - Clifton says the only thing missing @Mr Mousy is a strawberry tart!

 

[cliffanger]

Duplicate post deleted - darned slow internet!

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[GAVLAD]

Hi Geraldine & Cliff

We are booked to visit Camping Le Cormoran at Ars En Re in August.
Never been before so looking forward to all of your posts.
And if you pass by the above, let us know that we've not booked a dump

 

[magicsurfbus]

The walled cemetery in the centre of Bois Plage en Re (opposite the market hall and Tourist Info office) contains the small but intriguing Commonwealth War Graves plot that I mentioned in Broken Link Removed. To get inside for a look you have to press the button by the gate. Worth a few minutes of your time.

@GAVLAD - Don't know about the site, but Ars-en-Re is fine for exploring the top half of the island, especially if you've got bikes. Plenty of variety round there. The lighthouse is best at low tide and I'm pretty certain the neighbouring sandy beach is where they filmed The Longest Day - probably to get away from the rain in Normandy. Maybe a bit of a hike to the likes of La Flotte and Saint Marie, but if you visit Saint Martin you'll get an idea of what they have to offer. The beachfront at la Couarde is a bit more commercial than most but is still quite restrained by English standards. If you don't like the site there's an aire at St Clement des Baleines.

 

[GAVLAD]

The walled cemetery in the centre of Bois Plage en Re (opposite the market hall and Tourist Info office) contains the small but intriguing Commonwealth War Graves plot that I mentioned in Broken Link Removed. To get inside for a look you have to press the button by the gate. Worth a few minutes of your time.

@GAVLAD - Don't know about the site, but Ars-en-Re is fine for exploring the top half of the island, especially if you've got bikes. Plenty of variety round there. The lighthouse is best at low tide and I'm pretty certain the neighbouring sandy beach is where they filmed The Longest Day - probably to get away from the rain in Normandy. Maybe a bit of a hike to the likes of La Flotte and Saint Marie, but if you visit Saint Martin you'll get an idea of what they have to offer. The beachfront at la Couarde is a bit more commercial than most but is still quite restrained by English standards. If you don't like the site there's an aire at St Clement des Baleines.

Thanks for this @magicsurfbus I will be paying my respects at the cemetery whilst there.

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[cliffanger]

Well what a lovely day we've had. We cycled into St Martin and I think we found a relic @Anthea M - a thorn from the thorny crown..

Didn't actually see the thorn, but the inscription said it was there and who am I to disbelieve.....

We sat in our usual cafe and had this @Mr Mousy... it seemed smaller but tasted just as good.. (photo of strawberry tart should sit here.... )

Photos not uploading so may have to buy Internet from site to post further.

Suffice to say we are having a chillin time, the Ile de Re is as beautiful as it was last September and when we get decent wifi I can prove if with pictures!

 

[cliffanger]

deleted - double posted again!

 

[magicsurfbus]

Photos not uploading so may have to buy Internet from site to post further.

A rather naughty thing we've discovered at the site's aire is that the 1hr free wifi codes are consecutive numbers for each arrival. This means if your login on your entry ticket is CC1234 and your password is 1234, you can get another hour's free wifi by trying CC1233 and password 1233, provided the owner of the previous entry ticket hasn't done this already. The password is always based on the same numbers as the login.

Not that we'd ever dream of doing that of course. Oh nononononononononono

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[Anthea M]

We loved St Martins and cycled there. A lovely harbour cafe , watching people! No relics for me just beautiful Parisians people with chic children made us feel like relics!!!
Enjoy!!

 

[Fenman]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Summer isn't the same without a good relic. Now I can relax.

 

[cliffanger]

Another lovely sunny day - cycled to La Flotte in beautiful sunshine. Market was amazing, but I refrained from buying anything. I know I need a scarf and there's an art exhibition in St Martin where a textiles artist is selling SIGNED scarfs - I know which one I'm going for ..... just need to wear him down now. I've started high - saying I want a linen jacket at €200, tomorrow moving down to a €100 pashmina jumper, my plan is that having refused these two he will happily settle for €32 beautiful plummy silk scarf - and anyway 'I'm wurf it!!!'

I will let you all know if my plan works ... we've got campsite wifi now, so, even though you all know what this paradise isle offers ... there is fish..

There is fancy cakes....

There is cheese....

There is @Mr Mousy strawberry tarts...

There is bands ....

There is Very tall people ....

There is saucisson.....

And of course there is huitres....

But there is also a huge pretend donkey babysitting a Yorkie....

And a sculpture modelled on whichever Kardashian has the hugest arse!

This island has everything - even a high security prison! Did a bit of research on the state penitentiary in St Martin - The Saint-Martin citadel was, for more than 50 years between 1873 and 1938, the gathering point for convicts sentenced to hard labour in French Guyana, Cayenne and New Caledonia as they waited to board their boats. Nowadays, the Citadel, which has been a prison since the 18th century, is a high security prison with more than 400 inmates.

Wonder if they can upgrade to a cell with a view ....

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[DBK]

We're slumming it on the Ile d'Oleron at the moment. There is a wet bit beside us full of frogs - the small green sort. I recorded this a few minutes ago.
https://clyp.it/hxbqb2i2#
I suspect they will be at it all night.

 

[scousebird]

just need to wear him down now. I've started high - saying I want a linen jacket at €200, tomorrow moving down to a €100 pashmina jumper, my plan is that having refused these two he will happily settle for €32 beautiful plummy silk scarf - and anyway 'I'm wurf it!!!'

Good luck

 

[magicsurfbus]

We're slumming it on the Ile d'Oleron at the moment. There is a wet bit beside us full of frogs - the small green sort. I recorded this a few minutes ago.
https://clyp.it/hxbqb2i2#
I suspect they will be at it all night.

We heard similar on a bike ride through the salines on Re last month - to begin with I thought it was ducks. Sure beats the crap out of Paul McCartney's Frog Chorus doesn't it?

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[Neilfg]

Loving the updates, bit envious. I hope to follow in your footsteps eat huitres, drink chilled wine, snaffle strawberry tarts, view a relic and round it off with a fashionable Kitty body board and artisan signed scarf purchase. Actually I might skip the scarf, Jacqui does not read this so safe

But have one question, which site is it that you are staying on, have read the previous journey with @Mousy but cannot work out the site? Always interested in a perfect site

 

[cliffanger]

Loving the updates, bit envious. I hope to follow in your footsteps eat huitres, drink chilled wine, snaffle strawberry tarts, view a relic and round it off with a fashionable Kitty body board and artisan signed scarf purchase. Actually I might skip the scarf, Jacqui does not read this so safe

But have one question, which site is it that you are staying on, have read the previous journey with @Mousy but cannot work out the site? Always interested in a perfect site

Hi Neil, we are on Les Amis de la Plage, at Le Bois Plage en Re. It's 1645, page 159 in the Acsi book.

 

[cliffanger]

Well I have to apologise for the lack of posts, but really nuffin has happened! Well, apart from me going back to look for the silk scarf - which had been sold! I didn't like any of the others so much that I wanted to spend at least €40 euros so I came away empty handed! Clifton was initially downcast at my failure to buy, but cheered himself up by buying an oyster knife and six oysters on the way home. He thinks he has the hang of it now (courtesy of You Tube) but I am still stepping on oyster shell after two lots of hoovering!

We cycled to Loix today - a bleddy long way and not much there in the way of relics/markets/beaches - but there was a quiche Lorraine, tartelette de framboise et deux cafes so it wasn't a wasted trip!

What I can't work out though Funsters, and we did the same thing in September with the @Mousy s - we cycled UPHILL to wherever we were bound - be it St Martin, La Flotte, Ars en Re, into the wind, legs aching; so It was always with cheerful anticipation that I looked forward to the DOWNHILL breeze of trip on the way home.

Two trips to this Blessed Isle and it still hasn't happened! We NEVER cycle home the same way that we cycled out - and the cycle home is ALWAYS UPHILL!!! How can that be !?

I am seriously looking for a Decathlon store where I will buy a pair of handlebars with the curvy bits at the end - I am p****d off with passing continentals with my head down pedalling like mad, back horizontal to the crossbar, and they majestically pass me, cycling in a vertical position, with seemingly NO effort whilst carrying a baguette (and very often a small dog) in a flower festooned front basket, and calling a cheery 'bonjour' as they pass!
The weather has turned and we are now in the mouth of an Atlantic low, which is blowing straight onto our pitch - so we are reluctantly saying au revoire to Victor and Melanie at Les Amis tomorrow and heading for @Popeye 's recommendation of Mortagne sur Gironne tomorrow.

Further posts to follow - I've just looked on FB and I think-hope I've seen my uke for the first time ......

I'm soooo hoping it's mine - the wood looks too light to be mahogany, but I'm hoping it's a 'trick of the light!' @Jim - I could do with a 'fingers crossed' smiley!

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[davanne]

Enjoying catching up on your travels Ger ....Mortagne sur Gironde is a favourite of mine not that I'm jealous

 

[DBK]

If the French cyclists around where we are at the moment are any hint, the fast moving ones with dog and baguette - have a bit of electric help.

 

[cliffanger]

If the French cyclists around where we are at the moment are any hint, the fast moving ones with dog and baguette - have a bit of electric help.

Clifton said the same thing John, but I made it my business to look for the tell tale signs, and the majestic (albeit not necessarily fast) cyclists are 'sans electrique' but definitely 'avec chic' !

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[Popeye]

the light!' @Jim - I could do with a 'fingers crossed' smiley!

This is as close as you can get to crossed fingers that or


...............this 'n'

 

[Popeye]

of Mortagne sur Gironne tomorrow.

Can't be me Ger, I've never been there

 

[Hettie's Crew]

Dear cliffandger,
We think it is very unfair of you to put those pictures on here when we are suffering severe withdrawals, having just returned from a six week trip to Normandy/Brittany on Saturday.
Please refrain from any further pictures of Boulanger/Patisserie.
Thankyou

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[WynandJean]

Dear cliffandger,
We think it is very unfair of you to put those pictures on here when we are suffering severe withdrawals, having just returned from a six week trip to Normandy/Brittany on Saturday.
Please refrain from any further pictures of Boulanger/Patisserie.
Thankyou

Dear 'cliffhanger' that goes for ukuleles too! (Only joking, I appreciate both)

Wyn

 

[cliffanger]

Can't be me Ger, I've never been there

I thought you stayed there the day you left Twin Lakes? An Aires overlooking the marina. You sent me a photo but I can't find it!

 

[Popeye]

No babes, the marina I sent you a picture of was South of Perpignan on the med coast. (A few miles further on. )

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[cliffanger]

Baking here today - we moved back over to Marennes on a site where we are the only visitors! Sat by the lake, which sadly contains trout (for which we have no bait) and not Carp (for which we have loads of bait)!

Moving over to the Ile d'Oloron tomorrow for a few days by the beach before moving north and home.

John @DBK - were you staying at Les Saumonards? That's the site we're thinking of moving on to unless you know of a better one with access to the beach?

This is where we are now - Billy No Mates!

 

[DBK]

John @DBK - were you staying at Les Saumonards? That's the site we're thinking of moving on to unless you know of a better one with access to the beach?

No, we were here, which is at the north end of the island. The beach is about 300m away. Clean and basic (€13.50 a night) with a friendly bar and some keen pétanque players who meet every evening. It's in the ACSI book.
http://www.campinglesseulieres.fr

 

[cliffanger]

What a gorgeous day it's been. We've been at Les Seulieres for two nights. We discovered a lovely beach yesterday at St. Denis, with parking right next to it, so decided to get up early to guarantee getting a space to park, and a space to sunbathe on the beach.

We aimed to get there by 8am to beat the rush, and true to form parked up at the beach at 9.30... this is how the beach stayed - all day ....

Admittedly the tide was out .....

But we had the whole beach to ourselves all day!

We enjoyed a bit of entertainment when the tide came back in though - a couple who own the speedboat to the left of the yacht decided to go for a trip - so he waded out with a tiny dinghy to drop supplies off and nearly got decapitated when the speedboat rode the crest of a wave and smacked him in the face!

Undeterred he returned - with dinghy - for the missus who obviously didn't want to get her feet wet ...

And they finally set off an hour later!

A pretty flower/weed growing in the rocks....

There's a uke festival on the island - advertised in their own, very special way,

I excitedly looked it up on t'internet - only to find its on Juillet 11th!

We are off tomorrow - not sure where yet .....

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