Seafood, cognac, more wine.

Wednesday 16th May

A fairly quiet day today starting with the washing. We then decided to visit Portes des Barques which is the town on the opposite side of the mouth of the Charente river, opposite the town of Fouras that we visited our first day in the area. Rochefort is on the river also, but a couple of bends upriver from the mouth. It must have been quite a feat sailing those huge ships up the river to the docks as the tides in the river seemed to be very low.

Looking from Porte des Barques across to the town of Fouras
on the opposite side of the river mouth.

We arrived in Porte des Barques to find that it was market day and they were just packing up.  We had enough time to buy some more oysters and prawns and spring rolls for lunch. Beautiful day weather wise so it was nice to sit out and eat lunch in the sun.

These fishing shacks were all along the shore.
There didn't seem to be anyone there and
I'm not sure what they would be catching.
We would have liked to see them operating.

 Just off the end of the point was an island called Ile Madame. This was joined to the land by a causeway at low tide. We were able to drive out and around the island. We had a good view across to Fouras. Don't know that I'd be too keen to swim in the area because at low tide the mud flats seemed to go for miles.

Yes, she goes everywhere we want,
even when Dora says there is no road
and has us parked in the middle of the ocean.

The fort on Ile Madame -
there are fortifications all around the bays
and river mouths in the area.

We then visited the Citadelle Brouage. This is a walled town built in the 1600s and was a salt trade port. It is set in the middle of marsh land so there is quite a bit of bird life around - we have remarked on previous visits to France how little bird life there appeared to be but we might just have been in the wrong place. From this town over 70,000 French set off to emigrate to Quebec in Canada and there appear to have been quite strong links between Brouage and Quebec. The town was lovely and quiet - apart from the historical buildings to visit there were quite a few artisan shops with some beautiful jewellery. I resisted!

This window was given to the church in Brouage by the people of Quebec. 

The main road into the town of Brouage through the fortified walls.
There were very few tourists here but I can imagine a different story in summer.

Thursday 17th May

Moving day. We have travelled further south to the town of Bergerac which is on the Dordogne River - we love the Dordogne region of France. As we travelled we first passed through mostly wheat growing areas, then moved into a grape growing region where they produce cognac. We didn't stop for a tasting but it's on the list.

Cognac country - spotted this on a roundabout
and had to go around twice for a photo.

Even on a day where nothing much is happening we still find things of interest. First was the town of Pons that had an amazing castle/keep perched on the top of the hill.

Castle in the town of Pons - the big square building on the right
is the donjon, or heavily fortified keep.

This was a feature of the town - the grand escalier - built in the 1600s, there were 147 steps to take people from the river valley farming land to the castle. We originally parked at the bottom of the steps thinking we had to climb them to the castle, but when we asked Dora, she found us a way up by car. On you Dora!

We stopped in a small town for lunch where we watched as they rounded up an alpaca that had escaped from the circus. There we also learnt about a sport called horse ball. The restaurant owner likened it to rugby on horseback.

We are staying here for 2 nights in a hotel before moving on to another gite on Saturday.