Tuesday

We packed and set off this morning through La Rochelle and out across the 3 km bridge to Ile de Re, the island off the coast. It was hot and sunny and we had earmarked three potential campsites. We arrived at the first one, Camp Essi about half past eleven to be told they had just the one pitch left. We grabbed this and set up and then had lunch and had a lazy afternoon and evening with a barbeque later.

Wednesday was a very hot day we had a walk 200 yards down the road on to the beach where there was a welcome breeze. Beautiful wild beach that turns a corner and then heads up to the lighthouse at the top of the island. Much appreciated by Ellie as well as us. We had dreamed of walks on such a beach. At lunchtime we went into Ars which is about a kilometre away and sat under a canopy at Cafe Commerce and had a long slow lunch French style. I had langoustines to start which were massive and very spiky to pull apart but good to eat once through the defences. Then raie (skate) which seems to be on every menu here as well as the eponymous moules frites. I had gone for the menu which is so tempting and so had to then eat the profiteroles which were enormous and filled with ice cream with cream on the side. Graham went for the simple choice of onion rings as a starter, which was huge then a simple Californian salad which was huger although he did manage to help me out with my dessert. He had at least a pound of ham and cheese and sweet corn and eggs and somewhere buried under all that was some green salad. Lots about food here but one of the pleasures of holidays. We staggered back to the caravan to sleep it off.

Thursday we decided to set out for a walk to the above named lighthouse of phare de baleines at the end of the island which didn’t look too far away but was actually about 4 or 5 miles.  Most of this we walked on the beach until we reached orange netting and warning signs forbidding us to go any further. There were huge machines moving massive boulders and making a new sea wall along the front so we had to move inland onto the roads and between fields for the last mile. There were masses of bicycles along these lanes and they were all parked at the village at the end of the road where we had lunch before setting off back. One thing that I noted today and another thing the French do brilliantly is snails. They were clinging onto sticks of plants at the campsite and on metal fencing posts as we walked and I have seen lots of them on trees as we have travelled. They are also obviously appreciated as food by the French.

Friday

A visit to the market in Ars en Re this morning to buy salad, fruit and bread as well as very expensive olives and aubergine pate. Then a trip out to the east end of the island thinking to walk down the beach but after trying several beaches, they all said no dogs so we just stopped off at the woods in the centre of the island for a walk. Underneath large pine trees were fenced off plots of land, one with a post box at the entrance, several with cabins, but all probably privately owned and used as camping places. We went out for dinner this evening into the village and ate at Le Clocher in the main square. It was a disappointing meal especially as it cost nearly twice as much as other meals we have had so far. Graham had a steak that was very fatty and stringy and I had planchette de poisson which he told me was salmon and hake. The salmon was good but the “hake” was dark and a small fish, not at all like hake.

The only positive feature of the evening was when I payed a visit to the loos, there was a real toilet seat, haven’t seen one of them in a while, although this is always one of the times when I am glad to be short sighted.

Saturday

I went to ask about dog friendly beaches at reception only to discover that this is the only beach on the island that dogs are allowed on at any time. There are 3 other beaches that are OK for dogs but only before 10am or after 7 pm. It seems that the government are banning dogs from more and more places, including apparently some mountain areas, although many French people seem to wink at the rules.

We spent most of the morning doing some map searching and planning various routes, looking ahead. We then set off the other way down our beach, all of 500 metres to the beach bar for lunch. We managed to get a table inside and order just before two dozen bikers descended on the place. We walked on further after lunch finding a buoy that had washed up, it must have taken some massive storm to deposit that on the beach. There are three lighthouses along this coast, lots of shallow reefs off shore which must be a hazard to shipping.

Sunday

We drove up to the lighthouse and set off along the beach the other way. After a while a French woman stopped us and said we should not be on the beach with a dog after 9am. I was offended with her attitude when she said that there were other English people with dogs further along the beach and thought that was making a lot of assumptions on her part. I smiled politely and we carried on and those we spoke to with dogs were all French. Anyhow, she had her say, apparently this rule stops on 15th September, so we disobeyed the law. We also did clean up after our dog.

After about an hour and a half we turned back and came back to St Clement de Baleines where we had some late lunch and a very welcome drink. Back for a slow afternoon and went for a swim and made some dinner at the caravan later on.

Monday

Our last day here in Ile de Re and it has been a real slow down, wind down time, which was just what we were hoping for. Life back in the UK seems a long way distant although miss friends and family, especially Norcy (Graham or JG) at the moment whose brother David died just over a week ago.

Another hot day and headed for the beach and a bit of a paddle, walking round the corner or Pointe de Grignon as it is known here to catch a breeze but when we sat down the flies swarmed round. This became very uncomfortable after a while and so we headed back to the campsite. Ready to move on tomorrow and the weather is changing, storms coming in from the Atlantic, after all we are in the Bay of Biscay and looking at some of the sea defences they are building down this coast, I would imagine it can get pretty rough at times.

This has been a very french site but the last couple of days our neighbours changed and two British couples arrived with enormous motor homes, one couple next to us having a row about whether they would stay as they were squeezed into the space. Our french fitness neighbours on the other side were a young couple who were always out running or cycling and on the last morning, he plucked up courage and spoke to us in very poor English but was very friendly even though Ellie had barked at him. I had an interesting mime conversation with a French woman about the washing and drying and ironing(not on holiday!) There were two women in the cabin opposite who we also had a conversation with about painting, they were from near Poitiers.