Journey South (remember them?!)

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Two disasters this week. You may have seen that a severe storm hit the west coast of France in the early hours of Sunday morning. We’ve seen some of the aftermath on our travels this week and it looks just awful.

We left Chris and Helene’s in Normandy on Sunday lunchtime and headed south. The storm clouds cleared just as we approached Mont Saint Michel 2 hours later. We had a wander around the cobbled streets before driving on to our overnight spot.




On Monday we headed to Dinan, a beautiful medieval hilltop town. The river in the valley below was inches from bursting its banks and some of the shops there were already pumping out their cellars. We continued our mission to get to some warmer weather in the south, stopping a night in Nort sur Erdre where we found 3 bottles of Merlot for €4.50... bargain!





On Tuesday we arrived in the area known as Marais Poitevin, or Green Venice. It reminded us of the Norfolk Broads – an area of fens, criss crossed by canals and dykes. Apparently, many of the farmers use punts to get around as their land can’t be reached by road. We had a long healthy walk here – followed by an unhealthy three course lunch with wine! Whoops! Then we saw a beaver in a dyke!!





On Wednesday we arrived in La Rochelle. The towers were closed due to storm damage and some of the shops were being pumped out, but we loved the place and would definitely like to come back at some point. We stayed in a car park close to the town centre! The hospital and the station were quite close by, which made for an interesting night of sirens, trains and platform announcements!



On Thursday we headed on to Rochefort for a quick look at their rope factory (as interesting as it sounds, and also closed due to storm damage!) Finally we arrived at our base for the next day or so – Ile d’Oléron.

Everywhere we’ve been to so far has been so quiet, we have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s only March. There are very few people on the beaches, in the restaurants and campsites that have remained open for the low season. We almost feel we have places to ourselves. This suits us just fine, especially as our last campsite on Ile d’Oléron had a health spa and pool complex attached..... but you had to wear Speedos! Don’t expect any photos of that!

Thanks for your comments. Tom Tom got us around La Rochelle just fine Dad; I’m afraid the jousting outfit only came in kids sizes Mum; and Daxa – keep us posted! It’s time that hairdo was locked up!!

The second disaster? Oh yes, we’ve run out of Hob Nobs!