We sat outside a small bar in the blistering heat people watching for a while and Oscar took a liking to a German man and continued to pester him for attention until he left. The French authorities are renowned for their no nonsense attitude, they proved this by plucking a car straight from its space on the side of the road, onto the back of a tow truck by hauling it through the air. Highly impressive when you've not seen it before but I can imagine the shame of the owner who was probably wishing they'd just have spent a couple of euros on a ticket. We took a walk down to the aquarium before heading to a couple more bars where we sampled some of the beers, ciders and unfortunately for Kayleigh one of the real ales.
When we got back to the campsite after a stroll along the beach, (Oscar covered head to toe in sand, so much so it was coming out of his eyes) some people camping in the pitch next to us were having an argument, all of a sudden a man came flying out of his tent and landed on his back, there was another man towering over him screaming something very angry sounding in French, with another man holding him back, if only we knew what he was shouting, needless to say, that man didn't stay in his tent that night. It was all very dramatic, never a dull moment!! All in all La Rochelle was spent enjoying the the beautiful sunshine and wandering around the historic harbour walls (and witnessing various domestics).
Amazing Macaroons
Il De Re Marina
Enjoying the sunshine
Oscar didn't enjoy the thunder storm
The next morning were up early to get ourself to a beautiful little island just off the coast of La Rochelle called Il De Re. We didn't wake to very nice weather, it was overcast and there was no sun to be seen. As we got closer to the 3km bridge that joins Il De Re to the mainland the sun shone down on the golden sandy beaches and crystal clear blue sea, a perfect postcard picture. Someone told us that Il De Re gets the same amount if daylight as the south of France (and by the looks of things the same beautiful weather) so we couldn't wait to get to the campsite and get set up. Another minucipal campsite, well kept with huge pitches and a new shower block we checked in for three nights. We made the most of the facilities and did a couple of loads of washing before taking a walk down to the harbour and stumbled across little lanes crammed with cute boutiques and patisseries selling every colour macaroon imaginable.
Lining every part of the marina were restaurants with the most amazing looking seafood platters on offer. It's amazing how much money having a dog actually saves you, being a beagle there's no way on this earth we would ever dare to take him to a restaurant full of people with all that food to steal from the tables, we'd be kicked out before we'd even looked at the menu.
The next day we took the bikes and went for a ride down to the marina where we found a large indoor market. There were stalls piled high with fresh fruit and veg, breads, pastries and cream cakes, cooked meats and prepared dishes like feta and olives or spicy chicken pasta and more cheese than you'd know what to do with! Both being huge lover of food we'd already spent a fortune in our heads but decided on feta, olives and fruit before leaving. There were lots of people out with their dogs, or riding their bikes with their dogs sat in a little basket on the front, all on thier best behaviour but Oscar couldn't be trusted we had to tie him to a lamppost outside, he sat there sulking the whole time, although still sniffing every persons bag who walked out the door to check if there was anything in there he fancied.
We enjoyed 3 days of glorious weather before the most spectacular thunderstorm on the last night, Oscar hid behind a cushion on the sofa whilst we watched for lightening bolts, huge bright white bolts over the sea.
The next day we set off for Biaritz about 181 miles away en route we stopped at Intermarche for some essentials (a new beard trimmer for Jac) and stocked up on food and water. The following day felt like tropical downpours all day (no exaggeration) we were at a campsite just outside Biaritz in a place called Tarnos, we sat in the camper all day watching Game of Thrones (5 episodes, absolutely addicted) and eating white chocolate. When the rain eventually stopped we walked Oscar along the beach for a couple of hours and then headed back to the camper to do a bit of route planning.
Next stop Spain, we only left home 5 weeks ago, suppose we'd better think about actually going further than France.
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