Let's Travel Europe: Seafood diet!!

Monday 14th May

Headed off today to visit the Ile de Re which is an island just off the coast (joined by a bridge to the mainland) about 30k north from here. Funnily enough we saw a program on tv here (in french) about this island. There were 2 villages on the island that we wanted to visit, listed in our '100 beautiful villages in France' book. Dora couldn't work out how to get to either of them so we just followed our noses.

This was the bridge across to the island
- you couldn't really see anything from the bridge
- a rail at exactly the wrong height.

The first village, La Flotte, was centred around a small harbour. Very neat and clean town. We visited the market here and just wandered the streets.

Annie - one for you.

A Cisterciane abbey, Notre Dame de Re,
dating back to 12th century.

Seafood - yummo!

The second was the town of Ars-en-Re. Again a very clean and tidy town. We enjoyed lunch at the boulangerie - some of the restaurants by the harbour looked interesting but like all tourist towns the prices were quite a bit higher.

This tapestry is actually a modern one.
Made in 10 parts - one by each community on the island.
It is hanging in the church which is undergoing major renovations.

I made a friend at lunch.
We practised our french with the dogs owners,
talking about our old dog.

It isn't high season here yet but I can imagine what this place would be like in a few months. The island is around 30k long and covered with cycling tracks. If you loved bike riding this would be a great place to explore. And seemingly hundreds of caravan parks. We drove to the tip of the island and back. By the time we headed off the island the sea breeze was now a gusting wind and threw the car around as we crossed the bridge back to the mainland.

Tuesday 15th May

Today we decided to stick around town. It was market day so that was the first stop. The town has a parking area with 1000 free parks - it was full, presumably with workers and market goers. Fortunately we only had to do a short lap before we caught someone leaving.

The market was all food - we enjoy looking at the different fruit and veges and comparing prices. We visited the fish, meat and cheese market where we bought oysters, mussels and prawns for dinner. Rob said they were the sweetest mussels he'd ever had - in the past I haven't liked mussels but I had some of these tonight and they were delicious. Now Rob will have to share!

We see some interesting parking in France.
The road left and right is actually closed because of the market
- but parking on the roundabout???

One of the original entrances to the town of Rochefort.

Visited the corderie in town which used to make hemp rope for the sailing ships. This place was built in 1666 under the reign of Louis X1V. We found this place to be really fascinating, to see how the rope is made, and twisted together. I told Rob, this is how I make my twisted cords out of embroidery thread. The factory was mostly destroyed during WWII - a tug of war between the town planner and the politician saw the factory rebuilt, rather than eradicated and a road built.

This 'boat' is actually not for sea
- it is a replica designed to give kids the experience
of climbing the rigging of a sailing ship.

The Corderie - rebuilt after being destroyed.
Note the tower out the front - it still has the same lean on it
as after the bombing in 1944.

Final visit for the day was to the aeronautical naval museum. It seemed to be staffed by volunteers who were tinkering around the planes - Rob said the
equivalent of men's shed, but these guys all had an interest in planes. We got a guided tour from one of the volunteers who used to be a pilot in the navy, and then a commercial pilot. He was obviously very passionate about planes and flying as he gave the tour, so passionate that the tour ran over by one hour.