After the disaster of our quiet evening last night, we woke up to Fraser having had a full 13 hours and being super chirpy!  Penny was slightly less excited it was morning.

We packed up and sorted out all the clothes I washed yesterday, and the children went to the pool.  One of the benefits of being right beside the pool was that we could watch the children whilst we packed up…. with the added benefit that the Scamps thought they were super grown up and independent.  It was hilarious to watch actually!

We had planned to head off and hit the beach for an hour, but with the sky full of clouds and the road full of traffic we changed the plan and decided to get off up the road.  As we moved along the jammed road my mum reminded me on a text that it was Black Saturday… the busiest day on the road in France.

Heres a french camping tip for you… when you don’t need to move on a Saturday, don’t!  We knew this but due to other factors we needed to move today, however it was super busy.  I used the traffic jam to good effect, spotting an oyster shop on the side of the road and nipping in for a dozen, and running along the traffic queue to catch the van back up… they will be nice later!

We finally made it off the island, and the traffic flow started to move nicely.  I made an attempt at getting an on the go coffee at the petrol station as the signs were all good… proper machine etc, but it still wasn’t the same!!  I’ve not seen a Starbucks in France!

We hit some more traffic as we approached the vendee, but we were in the middle of sunflower crops so it looked pretty!

We arrived around 3.30 and started setting up.and as we got out of the van something didn’t look quite right about the bike rack.  On closer inspection the tow bar mount was coming away from the van chassis.  Now even i realised that this was not a good situation.  How the whole thing didn’t fall off coming along the road is a mystery as it was really hanging off.  That would have been catastrophic for anyone behind us, our bikes and poor freckle. 

I called our international break down who didn’t inspire me with confidence.  They said that they may have someone who could look at it on Monday.  Since the man thought it was May, and then when I confirmed that they would call first thing on Monday, he said possibly, I feared that I couldn’t leave it to chance.  He thought that there was little point in trying to get the van fixed today, as everywhere would be shut and that the closest place they could offer was around 30 miles away.  Without the tow bar being fixed to Freckle, there are no bikes and no bikes would have been a disaster on many fronts.

Luckily we have stayed at this campsite since we first started coming to France with Archie and the lady in the reception is Irish and remembers us and always welcomes us like old friends.  I popped into reception and explained the situation.  She quickly called a local garage who were still open (by this time it was gone 4pm and the french don’t like working late on a Saturday) and they said that if we popped along they would have a look.

We hopped in freckle and hot footed it to the garage less than a mile away.  They were expecting us and said that if we left it with them that they would be able to weld it back together.  We were relieved when they told us to return at 6:30.  Luckily we were by the main shops so headed to Mc Donald’s, and I thought I would call the breakdown people.  They said that as I had found somewhere that could fix it today that they would cover the first £150 of the repair.  They called the garage and did the negotiation on price and at 5pm we received a call to say that the work was all done.  This is only the second time that we have had to use our breakdown cover for in all the time we’ve been coming to France, and yet again we have had some super service and been back on the road in no time.

Once back at the site, the Scamps managed a quick swim before the late night of last night caught up with Penelope and she needed to go to bed.  We quickly got some pizza for the chidrens dinner (a super healthy day food wise!!) and P went on to bed.

Fraser is off to bed now and Stew and I are hoping for a more peaceful evening and some oysters and steak!  We keep reflecting on what could of happened if the bikes had fallen off and once again feeling totally lucky!! Fingers crossed for peaceful evening!

Today started energetically with a run (for pastries!), with the children “coaching” me!  A quick swim followed by picnic preparation and route planning session.  We were still feeling accomplished after our 25km ride last night, and thought that as the routes are so accessible we would try another today. 

After breakfast we set off in the direction of Saint Martin de Re and hoped to avoid the situation we had the day of arriving in the middle of a busy town on our bikes… however Stew and his excellent map reading skills found us right in the middle of the town!  We navigated the busy streets, stopping briefly to watch some acrobats doing a display. 

We made it back out on the the cycle path again, and quickly found ourselves with vine yards on one side and the sea on the other. Probably one of my more favoured locations! It was slightly cooler today, so perfect temperature for our ride.  We started to pass oyster farms and I had a sneaky feeling that my food heaven might be around the corner!  We passed what I can only describe as a court yard with trestle tables with the tops made out of logs with high chars and an oyster bed in the middle.  I had already decided that we would have to pop in on our way back.  We went passed several more of these small oyster producers and their rickety restaurants, which all looked as amazing as each other.  Before long we arrived at the beach we had wanted to head for… but it looked rubbish.  Fraser was in a terrible mood and announced that he was as happy as he could possibly be but that was miserable, due to being asked to leave the pool earlier than he’d liked so we decided that we would go the extra 2km to a decent beach in the hope that his mood would be washed away by the sea.  Sure enough it was!  We had our picnic on the beach and the scamps played in the sea, but it was reportedly cold today.

After lunch we set back off along the path, retracing our movement back to the oyster place… it was much easier with the wind behind us and happy children!  We parked the bikes and found seats right beside the sea… that sounds like a great stroke of luck but there was only one row of tables, and they were all along the sea.  We ordered the dish of the day, the children got ice creams and headed off over the rocks to play on the shoreline, and then we realised they didn’t take card and we could only pay with cash!  Whilst I waited for the food to arrive, stew went as fast as he could back to the bank… he came back just as the children were tucking into his prawns and was rather hot and bothered.  We sat in the sunshine whilst the children pottered on the sea shore, popping back sporadically to pinch our food.  There were oysters, prawns, bulots (sea snails) and langoustine, each prepared slightly differently to any we had had before and all totally delicious and as fresh as you could imagine.  Ive looked up their website and if you are ever in the area its really worth a pop in!

In fact if you are looking for a great place for a holiday in France this is somewhere I would recommend.  Between the long cycle paths, there are interesting small towns, with markets and unique shops, long beaches,short beaches, sandy beaches, sailing, and lovely places to eat and have ice creams.  Im not sure id return to this campsite specifically, its not bad, we have just had better, but the location works well for everything we need.  La rochelle is in easy reach too, so all in all its a fab place to be and I think that I could even spend a whole week here…. maybe 2 if I didn’t have a camper!

The duke of Buckingham attacked Ile de re in 1627, unsuccessfully and the city of Saint Martin built defences shortly after.  We cycled through the gates to the city and managed to skirt around the edges of the centre and headed back past the campsite we had stayed at before.  We passed the file de re donkeys which we had been searching for!  quite a unique looking donkey and nicknamed the scabby donkeys by the scamps! Poitou Donkeys were apparently a status symbol in the 18th century.  They were big and stronger than ordinary donkeys and good to work on the salt flats around here. They also look like they are wearing pyjama trousers, which their owners add to stop the bugs getting them… and some owners even got them straw hats for added protection.

A little further we passed the prison, which had inmates until the 30’s.  It was used mainly as a holding site for prisoners who were off to french guiana for hard labour, few escaped apart from one chap who escaped on a sack of coconuts!

Thats enough history! We got back, having done another 27km and went for a swim, and I turned into widow twanky!  I did a couple of loads of washing but with no where really to hang it i’ve been playing the hokey cokey with it ever since!

The scamps, absolutely exhausted went to bed early… we’ve got used to them being up in the evening, so it feels quiet now, but they really needed to catch up on their sleep and there were no arguments at bed time!

Stew and I are preparing to finish off some wine and have a steak for our dinner, and just relax!

****This is the update… no relaxing… at 9pm, fraser is sound asleep, penny is not and they start blasting out hideous music at a volume their speaker can not cope with. Ive been in quieter nightclubs! Stew currently dancing to the YMCA and blaming the wine! grrrrrr how disappointing!****

This morning we decided that today would be a bike ride day.  Stew headed to the market in La Flotte for pastries and bread, and I took the children for an early swim.  We had breakfast and packed a picnic, and headed out.  It didn’t start that well as we ended up in the busiest street market i had seen with out bikes, needing to get through to the other side.  We picked our way through and managed to get on the right route for the bridge.  There is a large bridge which connects lie de re to the mainland, and I’ve always fancied riding across it.  I do love a bridge!  It was a good ride to the bridge and then up to the half way point with the children cycling really well and looking forward to the way down!  Once back we followed the coast around to find a beach.  We managed to find the perfect beach bar, with deckchairs on the sand, ice creams, a tightrope for the children to play on and right by the sea.  They were in and out of the sea whilst we sat and watched from the shade of the bar and enjoyed a glass of wine… cold wine!!

We left the beach and headed on around the coast, through vineyards and pine forests and eventually to a dead end with access to the beach.  There was literally us, another couple and a random man on a bike buzzing around…. we stopped and had our picnic and the children played, and we decided to head on…. as we arrived back at the bikes, it became clear that my gel sadle cover had been removed.

The rest of the journey along past a couple of beaches and through a few more vine yards was harsh on my tender bottom!

We headed back and hit the pool to cool down… I finished book 5 of the holiday and the children played before we all showered and headed down to La Flotte for dinner by the harbour. 

Back and into bed with Stew falling asleep in the chair after our mammoth 25km bike ride and a full tummy!  I went to bed and go to listen to the “entertainment” in the bar!

The day started with a quick pack up, I think that moving the day before’s move helped speed things up and we were off the pitch by 10.

We went into the supermarket for essentials, you know… like wine and orangina!

We headed the short distance to lie de re.  We had only just managed to secure the last pitch (unfortunately without electric), and as we turned up, so did the Turners.  Our pitch wasn’t ready yet so we got the bikes off and headed out.  Sue had bought a picnic so we went into Saint Martin de Re to see the beautiful people with scarfs on in the summer and work out where we would eat when we are millionaires!  The ride was lovely on the flat cycle paths, and only about 5km into the town.  We stopped in the park and had lunch before having a meander around the port.  We went on to the back streets and found the tower we had found a few years ago which was exciting for the children… our children can’t remember going there before and we all enjoyed the panoramic views of the city and the trip up the rickety steps to the top.

We headed down after the bells told us (very loudly) that it was 2pm.  We followed our noses back to La Flotte where we were camping and found a beach for the children to play on.  The tide was on its way out and left some rock pools to be explored.  We got ready and headed back into the town for an ice-cream, it was well timed at the moment when Fraser got a flat tyre.

We made it back to the campsite and onto our pitch.  We are literally next to the pool and the bar (bar with terrible entertainment!) so the scamps had a swim.  We had a  quick bbq for dinner before all getting an early night..  I don’t know who was more tied, us or the children!

We started the day with a pitch move…. as we decided to stay another night in la rochelle we had to move pitches.  Not too much of a drama and worth the effort as we have ended up with a much better pitch than we were on before, and we are further from the roadworks which start about 6am!

Once we had packed up we moved and did the mountain of washing up from last night…. the move has bought us closer to the facilities, which were more of a bike ride away than a walk, so easier for a wee and doing the washing up!

We hit the pool once the new pitch was set up and enjoyed a couple of hours playing in the water.  We had some races and the children threw me in!  With all that exertion we had a leisurely lunch of cheeses and hams and then I had a snooze in the lay bag whilst the children relaxed and stew had a lay down in the van! super lazy!

We tried to make up for it with a trip on our bikes into town.  We cycled into the town and then round the port and harbour areas… they were absolutely vast!  I just can’t describe how many boats were in the marina.

We headed back into the main city and parked our bikes after meandering for about 10KM.   We walked down to the other side of the harbour and looked at the stalls and found an ice-cream shop which was recommended to us.  Well Miranda… you were right!  Whilst we were in the long queue we decided to have ice cream for tea and each had 3 scoops!  they had every flavour imaginable and I really thought that Penny might burst with excitement!  It was totally delicious! I had black current sorbet, with a salted caramel and a white chocolate combination! 

Whilst we ate it we walked along the back of the walls past some really lovely looking restaurants.  We have decided that when we pop back to la rochelle for a weekend without the children, we will go back and eat somewhere in that road.  We went on and found the little beach and sat on a wall and ate our ice-cream.

We decided that instead of having our dinner out we would head back as we were now 90% icecream and just have a late night swim and some sausages!  The children had the pool to themselves and had a really great time. 

We have just bundled them into bed, worn out, sun kissed and ready for a good sleep!

Im just relaxing now, whilst stew does a little bbq and we can have a couple of hours chilling out and chatting about our next adventure!  Tomorrow we are off to Ile de Re, and plan to head out for a nice cycle to the bridge from our campsite… bon soir!

Hello all………Sarah missed some great highlights from today, so I thought I would add an extra post to include them.

Firstly, let’s explore why the forgetfulness!  In an Ant and Dec stylie……Too drunk, it could be you……..Too sleepy, it could be you………..computer ran out of battery, it isn’t you……….distracted due to the remaining Malaria symptoms (see previous blog), it could be you………………….yep, you have guessed it, too drunk (a lethal cocktail of fizzy white wine, red wine and gin!!!)!!!!!

So, today was a little cooler (well this morning anyway), so why not spend a little time making Freckle look good?  Fraser and I took to the task of sorting out rusty chrome.  Now I read some medieval magic that said if you rub rusty chrome with wet tin foil, there will be a transformation……well shiver me timbers, it is amazing!  Fraser and I, armed with a ball of kitchen foil sorted out the hub caps, wing mirrors and headlights, like they were new!  One for the geeks – apparently, aluminium is softer than chrome but harder than rust and rubs it off, even Paul Daniels (god rest his soul) would be amazed at this magic!

So, a lovely drive into La Rochelle.  They are very proud of their roots with roads named after kings of England who ruled here in the past.  The town is amazing and I found myself in the middle of a park, a city square and the back streets, but with one thing in common, the people all loved Freckle!

So we got back with a the Turners making their debut in Freckle.  It turns out Adam is a bit of a David Bellamy in terms of being at one with nature (Sarah thinks Chris Packham is more contemporary)!  Anyway onto Adam spotting, them stalking and catching a lizard, to the children’s amazement.  Not really something we see at home so the kids were v excited.

The final highlight came as the camp entertainment toured the site, drumming up support for the big event of the night.  Tonight he was coming round in an electric golf buggy, with a massive PA system playing some tunes and dressed as Michael Jackson, in the red leather suit!  Trouble is he has a beard and a definite ringer for the Bo Selecta Michael Jackson He He!

We hope the Turner family arrived home safely……..Adam did well ordering a taxi.  Not sure how to be honest, he thought the “person” on the other end was an automated machine……..nope just a Frenchman!!!!!

Bon Nuit xxxx

4.45am…. thats what time the bin lorry came with it beeping and crunching into the campsite. The next time we woke was about 8am to a huge stinky trump from one of the adults followed by a quick exit to the loo! They shall remain nameless!

This site is really fab for many things but it is quite noisey… thats not to say we wouldn’t come back but its got more hustle and bustle than the previous sites we have stayed in. We love la Rochelle and Stew has declared it his new favorite french city. This may seem like quite an accolade but when pressed as to his previous favorite he said he didn’t have one!

We were all up by 8 and directly opposite the campsite there is an “artisinal boulangerie” selling pretty cakes so I popped over for breakfast and some bread for the day.

After breakfast I read the last bit of my book, before having a bit of a clear up and then finally doing my roots. Its fair to say that I’ve not done the best job but I’ve cheated my overly aged hair successfully for another few weeks!

We literally had no food so I went over and did a supermarket sweep of the aisles and got in some nice food for this evening. The children were super excited that we were expecting the Turner children for a play in the swimming pool, and a bbq.

Stew hopped in to la rochelle to collect the Turners whilst the Adamson children waited impatiently. The children played and we chatted and then headed over to the pool for a couple of hours. It amused me as the Turners did not have the required wrist band for access and when the life guard patrolled the swimming pool, Adam sat in his hands! good skills!

A bbq and some wine followed whilst the children played.. the girls painted their hair blue, and a then adam and stew went to Decathlong (again!). Well I say again…. Adam didn’t know anything of this Decathlon of which we spoke! Stew soon saw that as his duty to deal with that!

Soon it was time for bed and without anything to really report on today, we’ve all had a fab day and are feeling very relaxed!

We woke up first thing and remembered it was Sunday…. and so our hopes of restocking the supplies in the van were zero!  I had to go for a 4km bike ride to find a bread shop which was open…. it needn’t have been that long but I got a bit lost, and took a detour.

When I returned it was worth the effort… If i had a sticker for best pastry of the holiday it would go to that shop! Yum!

We got ready and headed over to the pool.  When we got there there was Euro pop blasting out whilst a guy jumped about excitedly offering an aqua aerobics session.  Luckily after the session they kept the music going… as it was quite fun.

We had a chat with the guy that followed up from the aqua aerobics guy, his job was to do swimming pool games!  We decided that Mr Hargraves would  be very good in this role as basically it involved wandering around the pool chatting to people on holiday! I just read my book but stew and the children enjoyed watching the fun.

We got out the pool and headed back for a little time out of the sun.  Stew decided he would head over the the decathlon across the road, as we had only been to the shop 3 times so far in the last 2 weeks!  sadly it was closed.

We had a bit to eat and I washed some clothes and some other exciting jobs, and we got ready to head into the town.  It was more straightforward this time as we knew where we were going!  We weaved through the streets and parked our bikes by the marina.  We walked along the quay side in the sun and saw the harbour tower where the diving had been done from the day before.  All trace of the excitement was completely gone already.  We decided we would head up the tower to have a look how high it was.

The first interesting thing that we learnt was that La Rochelle had been an autonomous city, and went from being English to French a few times over the years!  The building itself was incredibly well maintained and restored, and was fascinating to wonder around.  It was both a royal residence and a defensive fort and had been built so the royals didn’t bump into the soldiers along the corridor.  It was the first building to have 2 spiral staircases so that one could be used as a service and the other for the residents.  Stew was impressed that this building technique was around a few thousand years ago and is still used now!  It was also used from time to time as a prison.

On the top where the diving took place the floor was uneven and the walls low!  I was terrified, and got sweaty feet in my flip flops and made sure that the children kept both their feet on the ground at all times.  I don’t know how they came up with the idea of even jumping off the side let along doing hand stands!!

Once our feet were back on the ground, we decided to hit the shade again and refresh with some cold white wine.  we ordered a small caraf of wine and sat by the boats.  The Scamps have been rather taken with the human statues at the various places we have stopped and there were loads in la rochelle.  So they spent a happy 20 minutes pretending they were statues before going and using their french to order ice creams and sat by the sea wall to eat them.

We had another wine and then got the bill and regretted it! it was nice wine though, and we learnt to look at the menu before ordering wine blindly or they might give you something which, though very delicious costs more than a meal for an army.

We walked back around the marina and stopped and watched some street artists, in particular a group of street dancers.  They were really good, and even though they had to pause a few times to let the odd bus through, they were very entertaining.  Fraser got pulled up from the crowd, and stood up for a few minutes looking nervous, before bursting into tears as he didn’t know what they were saying.  In the short time he was up there, the turners were walking past and looked over, thinking I’m sure that looks like Fraser!  So the children watched the rest of the show together.

After the show we headed for some food.  We picked a restaurant with a lovely view of the towers and chose the set menu.  The starters were an assortment of seafood and flame grilled prawns in brandy sauce, so we shared a bit of both.  Main course was steak with pepper sauce and the yummiest chips!  I don’t know how the steak in France always looks so rough and tastes so good… I wonder if its cut in an opposite direction to the UK?  anyway it was delicious!  For dessert I had cheese and stew had a profiterole as big as penny head, filled with ice cream!  It was an amazing dinner with a stunning backdrop.

We headed back to the bikes and cycled home. Straight to bed for all of us when we got back, and the children were asleep in seconds!

Last night we mainly packed everything away so that this morning we were able to get up and head off. Stew popped over to reception in the early evening and they told us that the french school broke up today and that the traffic on the road was expected to be busy.

As I mentioned previously we were headed to La Rochelle to have a look at the red bull cliff diving, so we wanted to ensure that we had enough time to set up and get sorted.

We set alarms for 7, and after a night of listening to an owl hoot close by and catching bug bites i was feeling less than energised. By the time we got up we were packed and on the road after washes and teeth in about 20 minutes. We hit the bakers down the road and headed for the ferry to Royan across the river.

We got to the ferry exactly as one left after having fought our way through the (non existent) traffic. So we had a wait of about 45 minutes whilst we ate our pastries. Getting on the ferry Freckle decided to stall a number of times, protesting at the early start and the need to move before running for a minute or so, so when we ended up blinking the exit to the ferry for all the passengers I was slightly nervous that we might hold up proceedings!! I allayed my worries with a coffee and looking at the lovely scenery. I have forgotten to add that at the port whilst waiting there was very nearly a moment of a caravan reversing into a Quashqi in a manoeuvre which took about 20 mins and added much entertainment!

We left the ferry and the landscape of the Aquitante and Medoc behind. We swapped the sandy fields of vines for a more marshy salt flat and oyster beds and some pretty fields of Sunflowers. I think we passed a famous cyclist/triathlete!

As we watched the mileage decrease on our approach to la Rochelle we were still in a very industrial area! I was particularly concerned when were were 0.1 miles away and in the middle of a large shopping centre. We arrived at the campsite and as I approached reception with some trepidation and a mantra that we could move on if we wanted after one night, i was pleasantly surprised. The campsite was well laid out with an amazing pool and restaurant and was very close to the local amenities!

After setting up quickly ( we are getting even better at it each time) we headed over to the swimming pool, a fab facility with hot tub, slides and a large swimming pool. We had lunch and prepared to go out, following a short trip to the supermarket to replace some lost sandals! They were not replaced due to artistic differences but a couple of bottles of wine and some orangina were bought along with some hairdye to deal with a critical roots issues.

We packed up and followed the instructions for the cycle path with lead straight into town so we could rendezvous with our friends. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as obvious as it seemed and we took a detour, but found our way in eventually, with my improving french being required to ask two old ladies and a zig zag formation through the beautiful streets of La Rochelle as we neared the destination. The outskirts of the city are functional and not pretty, but once in the centre the buildings and streets are breathtakingly beautiful and we quickly found our destination.

After dropping the bikes off in a garage we headed into the marina, firstly to buy ice-cream and secondly to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the views of the redouble cliff diving championships. We found a shady spot and as the grounds and the atmosphere built the height of the 27m diving board seemed to grow in equal measure. A truly breathtaking spectacle to see… literally making you wince each time one of the divers took off for their performance, and then huge relief each time they landed and safely surfaced. We were keen to support the Southampton diver Garry Hunt and he didn’t disappoint with some spectacular dives, winning the competition.

After heading back for dinner with the Turners, we got on our bikes and hoped that the journey home would appear more straight forward! it did and there was even time to think about where we would go to look tomorrow if we made it back in.

The children wasted no time at getting into their beds tonight and I don’t think that I will be far behind. We have noticed with travelling 100 miles further north that the temperature has dropped a little.

A fabulous way to celebrate 11 years of happy marriage and with some lovely people seeing something quite spectacular!

I got up excited about my cycle to the bakers… i’d been thinking about my pastry since yesterday morning!  I was also excited as we had decided that we wanted to head to Montalivet market today.  Im sure I have bored you all with the story before…. but when I was first pregnant with Penny we came here for a weekend.  I saw a load of old men sitting on milk crates eating oysters off a plastic tray, drinking white wine that was so cold there was condensation on the outside of the glass.  I’ve never wanted to eat anything more.  Several times since then we have tried to get to that market and for one reason or another I’ve ended up oyster-less! I was hopeful as I had done the appropriate research today!

We had a map and decided that we would cycle.  It was showing as cycle paths all the way, and we added them up and it looked like 10km.  We thought the children would be fine with that and set off.  Quite quickly we realised that it wasn’t actually in KM it was miles so a bit of an error, but by that time we were committed!  With only one short spell on whinging and one minor incident where penny left the route we arrived 16.4km later in Montalivet!  We quickly located the specific oyster stall I had my eyes on, bought the children a lolly pop each and wasted no time in buying the oysters and wine.  It was every bit as delicious as I had hoped.  With limited space in our fridge, we can’t actually fit a wine bottle in, so cold wine is quite a challenge.  Given the temperature we have been experiencing too it’s been a little too much for it and so our fridge has struggled to take the heat off the milk!  Cold Cold wine tasted so good!

We had a walk around the market and then headed to get Stew his food heaven.  Its called an Americane and they can only usually be found in the tackiest of seaside resorts in the greasiest looking burger shack.  Basically its a combination of a chip buttee and a beef burger with loads of BBQ sauce on inside a big bit of french stick!  Once found, it was swiftly dealt with, and we moved on to the children’s food heaven in an icecream parlour.  We walked down to the beach to let our lunch go down and decided to head back before hitting the beach as a 16km bike ride, slightly damp and salty didn’t feel like a good idea.

As we got back to the bikes Fraser wanted to know what our time was for getting there, so that we could try and beat it on the way back! Thats our boy!!  1 hour and 4 minutes there…. 57 minutes back! As penny says…. BOOM!

The children are having a well deserved rest whist Stew does the same and I catch up with some work and other bits.  Off to the beach shortly for some more wave action and I think probably another BBQ tonight.

We are going to pack up this evening so we are ready to hit the road early in the morning (when I say early, I mean by 10ish!) as we are moving on.  We have changed our plans slightly as we learnt its the Redbull cliff diving finals in La Rochelle on Saturday evening.  We changed our campsite booking and are going to get on the ferry first thing so we can get there and find a good spot.

Catch up soon.