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

[Anthea M]

Th

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 ....
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Admittedly the tide was out .....
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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 ...
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And they finally set off an hour later!

A pretty flower/weed growing in the rocks....
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There's a uke festival on the island - advertised in their own, very special way,
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I excitedly looked it up on t'internet - only to find its on Juillet 11th!

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

thats a giants uke!!

 

[cliffanger]

I know @Anthea M - the luthier is on the island - his shop was closed last year - but I am definitely not leaving the island until I give it another go tomorrow ...

Fingers crossed he will be ouvert .....

 

[DBK]

Your "weed" is Yellow Horned Poppy I think, Glaucium flavum. Grows in sea shingle and other barren places. The horn refers, sadly, not to a musical instrument but to the seed pods, which can be 30cm long.
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/yellow-horned-poppy

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[sedge]

I'm glad you didn't go to Les Saumonards - it looks a bit of a dump, frankly. Is not the nice grassy aire (that used to be a campsite and still has the ablutions block) nr St Denis still ouvert?

Pete's just invested in replacements for the pair of trainers he acheteed on the Ile d'Oleron in 2009. They had some but a nice bluey grey instead of fawn in the same shop when we revisited the Ile two years ago and he refused to buy them as he didn't need them.

We've never ever seen that make in another shop in France anywhere. So - he invested £50 in Clarks the other day - instead of €25 ...... LOL

 

[cliffanger]

Well my little Funster Friends we are now in La Fleche, on the Loire. I had honed my negotiation skills to a level that Teresa May would have been proud of, and He agreed that we would eat out here, and in Le Treport tomorrow night - so in anticipation, I scanned TripAdvisor and found at least three restaurants that are the height of 'Belle cuisine' in the town.

We arrived at the Aires mid afternoon so I excitedly dragged him into Centre Ville to find the best one. We found it.... 'Ouvert Mardi au Samedi'. 'No problem' Says I 'we'll find no 2'.....Ouvert Mardi au Samedi'. Through gritted teeth, 'No problem, we'll slum it with no. 3'.... 'Ouvert Mardi au Samedi'. I gave up on numbers 4,5 and 6 - luckily there is a Carrefour Contact opposite the Aires and we dined on quiche, assorted meats and salad - there was 'non chance' of me cooking!

@yodeli Frankie - I've done very well with my spoken French this year, and I don't think I've needed to ask you anything - until now - It takes me three weeks out of every one of my French holidays to remember that shops shut for 2 hours from 12 till 2 - but why oh why, having closed on Sundays do towns shut down on Mondays too??? it is just TOO depressing and I will never get used to it! Rant over.

We left the Ile d'Oleron in beautiful sunshine today, having wandered the Avenue du Port yesterday. @Anthea M - as promised I paid another visit...

Woohoo - the shutters were open!! but the door was locked - so I wanly looked through the windows...... (The mark of a dedicated Luthier - he spends more time on his ukes to the detriment of his window hygiene......)

@Janine and Barrie - don't know about you, but they looked pretty weird to me!

I was quite happy not to have to go in and try to explain in French - 'very nice I'm sure, but I prefer a sound hole and a bit more thickness in the body! @yodeli Frankie - just in case I actually get through the door on the third attempt next year - how do I say that?!

The Aires here is pretty basic, very trafficky loud, and the town is closed - but the outlook is pretty...

And Le peche est grande...

I WILL be eating out tomorrow at Le Treport - any recommendations welcome!

 

[Anthea M]

The anticipation is often more exciting than the event!!! They don't look like the lovely Uke you are having made!!
Safe journey and hope you get your meal out!!

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[yodeli]

very nice I'm sure, but I prefer a sound hole and a bit more thickness in the body! @yodeli Frankie

Super sympas vos trucs mais moi je les préfère avec un trou dedans pour le son et un corps un peu plus présent!

LOL... I have put it in some funny way!

As for the mondays off : You certainly liked having your week ends when you were a worker, and this means saturday and sunday yes? or is it only sunday in England?? It is saturday and sunday in France.
So for shops who want to do some business/money on saturdays, they owe their employees a day, and it can't be separated from the sunday. So those employees, not having the saturday can have the monday off. This is why most shops have no employees on mondays if having worked on saturdays...hence ...shops are shut!

 

[DBK]

You are lucky if they are only closed on Mondays. The restaurant on the site we are on at the moment has a sign saying it is closed Mondays and Wednesdays. Which is technically correct but as this is basse saison it is also closed every other day of the week!

 

[cliffanger]

Super sympas vos trucs mais moi je les préfère avec un trou dedans pour le son et un corps un peu plus présent!

LOL... I have put it in some funny way!

As for the mondays off : You certainly liked having your week ends when you were a worker, and this means saturday and sunday yes? or is it only sunday in England?? It is saturday and sunday in France.
So for shops who want to do some business/money on saturdays, they owe their employees a day, and it can't be separated from the sunday. So those employees, not having the saturday can have the monday off. This is why most shops have no employees on mondays if having worked on saturdays...hence ...shops are shut!

Thank all for the interpretation Frankie - I'll certainly practice for when we go back to Oleron - although I will have no idea of his reposte!

Our shop workers have to put up with Sunday and one day in the week off instead!

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[Binky]

[ 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.

Bit late telling us about the button now! Yesterday we followed a family in through the gate and found that very interesting little plot. However, when we came to leave the door wouldn't open. I thought "cripes - we are in a horror film, doomed to be stuck in a cemetery for ever". Then we spotted the little button......Phew!

 

[cliffanger]

Apologies for the tardiness in finishing this thread off - blame, the sun, the cleaning of the van, the washing of the clothes (and I am currently ironing them in 25+ degrees heat )

We finished the tour off by making the same mistake as we did at the start - we bypassed La Crotoy and went for lunch in Le Touquet...... what a weird place that is - very affluent, but not what I expected at all, which was a seaside town with lots of restaurants etc - they may have them, but we didn't find them, we found a town which felt more like a posh estate, and a seafront populated by huge hotels, and no bars or restaurants!

We stayed the previous night at the aires in Le Treport. We had turned up at the aire mid afternoon, starving hungry, so made the mistake of filling up on cheese, pate, bread and beer, so weren't really ready to eat a meal on the evening, but as that had been planned, we took the funicular railway down into town.

Just as a precaution, upon leaving the railway in town, I stopped to check the return times of the train - we wouldn't want to miss the last train up I thought - to my astonishment the last train up was 20.45! We had just over an hour to find a restaurant, eat, and get the train back! I know we could have got a taxi back, but by then I was so peed off and didn't feel like a) finding a restaurant, b) eating when I wasn't really hungry c) finding a taxi and d) explaining where we wanted to be taken to. Added to this, I was worried that we wouldn't find a taxi and would have to scale the mountain to get back to the van - having stuffed a meal I didn't even want!

So after wandering around the town and the beach for an hour, we got the last train back and spent the evening in the van!

No worries I said, we can have a lovely lunch at Le Touquet tomorrow - well you know how that ended Funsters!

The moral of the tale - La Crotoy - ALWAYS la Crotoy!

Well we are indeed home now, the van has been emptied and cleaned, I am, as I said doing a mountain of ironing, but already looking forward to Misterton next weekend!

Thank you for reading my thread, and hopefully the next holiday one will be a joint venture with the @Mousy s - who we REALLY missed this year!

 

[Anthea M]

Apologies for the tardiness in finishing this thread off - blame, the sun, the cleaning of the van, the washing of the clothes (and I am currently ironing them in 25+ degrees heat )

We finished the tour off by making the same mistake as we did at the start - we bypassed La Crotoy and went for lunch in Le Touquet...... what a weird place that is - very affluent, but not what I expected at all, which was a seaside town with lots of restaurants etc - they may have them, but we didn't find them, we found a town which felt more like a posh estate, and a seafront populated by huge hotels, and no bars or restaurants!

We stayed the previous night at the aires in Le Treport. We had turned up at the aire mid afternoon, starving hungry, so made the mistake of filling up on cheese, pate, bread and beer, so weren't really ready to eat a meal on the evening, but as that had been planned, we took the funicular railway down into town.

Just as a precaution, upon leaving the railway in town, I stopped to check the return times of the train - we wouldn't want to miss the last train up I thought - to my astonishment the last train up was 20.45! We had just over an hour to find a restaurant, eat, and get the train back! I know we could have got a taxi back, but by then I was so peed off and didn't feel like a) finding a restaurant, b) eating when I wasn't really hungry c) finding a taxi and d) explaining where we wanted to be taken to. Added to this, I was worried that we wouldn't find a taxi and would have to scale the mountain to get back to the van - having stuffed a meal I didn't even want!

So after wandering around the town and the beach for an hour, we got the last train back and spent the evening in the van!

No worries I said, we can have a lovely lunch at Le Touquet tomorrow - well you know how that ended Funsters!

The moral of the tale - La Crotoy - ALWAYS la Crotoy!

Well we are indeed home now, the van has been emptied and cleaned, I am, as I said doing a mountain of ironing, but already looking forward to Misterton next weekend!

Thank you for reading my thread, and hopefully the next holiday one will be a joint venture with the @Mousy s - who we REALLY missed this year!

Enjoyed it with you as ever! Thanks for taking the time to share!! Sorry we won't see you at Misterton jake the peg to blame! ( is your Uke ready?!!)

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[Figaro]

Our only visit to la crotoy ended in restaurant disappointment a few years ago with them all closing up about 9.00 pm on a Saturday evening !

 

[cliffanger]

Enjoyed it with you as ever! Thanks for taking the time to share!! Sorry we won't see you at Misterton jake the peg to blame! ( is your Uke ready?!!)

Such a shame Anthea - will you be at Terry's FFF meet - we've just got onto that one.

Uke is still in manufacture - Liam is at the National uke festival this weekend and I think I've spotted it on his table as an example of his work, but I'm not asking him incase I'm wrong (again....) !

 

[2657]

Our only visit to la crotoy ended in restaurant disappointment a few years ago with them all closing up about 9.00 pm on a Saturday evening !

It's not Spain

The French mainly do déjeuner early closing in the evening is the norm.

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