L’Ile de Re..

We are on the homeward stretch of our travels around France. After leaving the vineyards of St Emillion, we headed further into the Charente Maritime to the Gironde Estuary and spent a night on an Aire which overlooked the little harbour of Mortagne sur Gironde. There are some amazing public camping Aires in France and for less than 10 Euros for 24 hours parking plus electric it was good value.

This was a bit of a trip down memory lane as we holidayed in this area for a number of years when our girls were very young. The little port had not changed that much in 20 years and was still a lovely spot. The house we rented was still there but now a chambre d’hote. It would have been fun to have booked a room but our little van would be jealous.

If I’m not eating cheese, then my next indulgence is fruits de mer..this area is just the place for the oysters and moules frites….delicious!

The weather was not being kind to us so we decided to move on up to one of the islands off the coast. We had been to the Ile de Normoutier on our last trip so decided to try the Ile de Re famous for donkeys who wear culottes!

and not forgetting the rich Parisiens who flock here every summer.

The holiday season for the French has not started yet so the small island which is connected by a bridge (16 Euros to cross) just outside of La Rochelle was not too busy. Its such a beautiful island and was well worth the trip. They used some of the beaches here for locations in the film “The longest day” to replicate the beaches of Normandy in the DD landings.

We headed up to the very tip of the island to stay near the lighthouse and found a wonderful campsite right on the beach. It was heavenly and the sunsets were beautiful. It was the most windy spot on the island though and we did wake in the night wondering if our van roof would make it and the awning which was flapping around wildly. We reconfigured the next evening so that we weren’t in a wind tunnel.

The island is perfect for cycling as it’s so flat and there are lots of green cycle routes to use. They have made it so cycle friendly for families.

You can’t replicate a French croissant, pain au chocolat or baguette like the ones bought from the village boulangeries. The pastries from the patisseries are works of art but out of all of them I can’t resist a chocolate eclair or begneit.

The main city of St Martin, a small citadel has a lively port with lots of restaurants and shops and is lovely to wander around. Bizarrely, it has the only store dedicated to TinTin in France. I love the Tin Tin posters and books and would have loved a Snowy but they were too expensive.

The little village of Ars en Re has an unusual medieval church with a black and white steeple which the sailors used as a reference point to help them navigate around the rocks of the island.

Each little village has its own carousel in the square. This one dates from 1900.

We move on to Brittany for our last few days..