We arrived at our friends' home on the outskirts of la Rochelle at 3pm on Friday 10 July; in fact we stopped at a small layby just before reaching their house and Marian
walked down the road to announce our arrival, because their road is quite narrow and yet quite busy. Our friends are called Gaby and Bernadette and we have known them for 25 years! Gaby came back with Marian and directed us to a parking area not far from their house; there was enough room for us the leave the MH there temporarily at no charge. We took some stuff with us and returned later to reposition the MH to Gaby's brother's house where it will stay for the next week. There is plenty of room there to accommodate it. We returned to our friends' house for dinner and an early night as we were by now very tired.This update will cover the week of Saturday 11 July to Friday 17 July. As this week is being spent with our friends and the MH left parked at La Rochelle, we will not cover the events in detail but we will provide a summary of the happenings for each day.
Saturday 11 July 2009
After a leisurely morning we walked with Gaby & Bernadette into La Rochelle.
R bought some new sunglasses and we strolled around the town. We had dinner together at a restaurant a little way outside the town, with views of the sea and good value food. There is a big festival in progress at La Rochelle and we walked back into the town through crowded streets; there were two music staqes (one requiring payment, the other free) and many street artists.
We walked back to the house and had the first of several late nights.
Sunday 12 July 2009
G&B drove us to the home of one of their daughters (Myriam) and her partner Olivier just South of Nantes where we had Sunday lunch and met their three delightful daughters aged 2, 5 and 7.
In the afternoon we all walked around the pretty small town of Clisson with its historic building and ruined chateau. The sun shone; it was very warm and pleasantly shaded beside the river there.
We returned to Myriam's house for dinner and in the late evening drove back to La Rochelle for another very late night. We are getting used to a waking day running between about 10am and sometime after midnight!
Monday 13 July 2009
In the morning we took advantage of secure broadband Internet access from
the house at La Rochelle to add some more photos to this blog. We had a long lunch in the sun sitting outside in the garden and in the late afternoon set out with enough essentials for 2 days to our friends' small holiday chalet on the Ile d'Oleron - this is very basic but a lot of fun - a bit like camping with walls!
We ate (yet again!) outside the chalet and then went for a short walk to the nearest beach - less than a mile away, strolling along the sand and watching airborne jet-skiers silhouetted against the sunset.
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Bastille Day - a major festival and holiday in France! After breakfast we went for a long walk,
initially along the South West (Atlantic) coast of the island, with short stretches of beach walking but mainly in the pleasant forest immediately bordering the shore. The morning weather was cloudy and we even had a few light showers but it remained very warm, and by lunchtime, at a place called Le Grand Village the sun had reappeared. After a picnic we returned towards our starting point by a more inland route using a maze of paths through flat "marais" (fens), threading our way between large ponds originally used for farming oysters and gathering salt. 
Although some of these are still in use, many are now defunct. It was rather exposed walking on a very hot afternoon. It would also have been easy to get lost, but with the aid of a pretty good map we found our way back into the coastal forest and eventually to the car, a total distance of about 12 miles. After a rather splendid barbecue supper we walked again, this time to the small port of La Cotiniere. 
We walked in the dark and in the company of vast crowds intent on watching the promised firework display (Feu d'Artifice). Having reached La Cotiniere there was a long wait for anything to happen in spite of hundreds (more probably thousands) of people standing and staring seawards across the harbour in anticipation. But when it arrived the Feu d'Artifice was magnificent - worth waiting for, and lasting a generous 20 minutes - it must have cost a fortune, yet similar ones take place all over France! We would have liked to stroll a little to soak up the atmosphere, but the crowds were too dense for this to be in any way pleasant, and we made our way back to the chalet well after midnight.Wednesday 15 July 2009
After another outdoor breakfast in the sun, we packed up our things and returned with our friends in their car to the house at La Rochelle. Not much else happened during the day except for another sizeable lunch and equally generous supper. Between these two big eating sessions we were fortunately able to grab about 3 hours sleep as by now we were both feeling knackered and we knew that later in the evening we were all going to see a play (in French) at Saintes (about an hour's drive inland from La Rochelle). We left just before 9pm. The play took place in the open air in the grounds of the magnificent Chateau de la Roche-Courbon at St-Porchaire. It was a newly written dramatic presentation of the story of Bluebeard (Barbe Bleu), a metaphorical fantasy about erotic and romatic love, basic instincts, power and relations between man and woman. The tale is better known in France than in England and the play was superbly done with just five actors supported by atmospheric lighting and sound. Because the actors spoke clearly, and for the most part quite slowly, we were able to understand more than we expected, the dialogue being supported by magnificent spectacle. We both enjoyed the experience enormously. After the drive home it was well into the early hours of Thursday before we got to bed, Gaby having poured us enormous glasses of Calvados for nightcaps. This was apparently in recognition of 15 July being our wedding anniversary, though anything more likely to suppress thoughts of bedtime romance than an enormous and very strong Calvados is difficult to imagine!
Thursday 16 July 2009
The hottest day of our holiday so far! The sun shone from an almost cloudless sky and temperatures were well into the 30s by midday. Gaby's niece Dirye and her seven year old son Sinan (a very bright and pleasant little lad) are staying at La Rochelle for several days,
and the six of us went off in two cars to Fouras to catch the passenger ferry to the small island of Ile d'Aix. After landing at a harbour we walked a short distance to a beach, went swimming and spent a short time sunbathing, but it was far too hot to stay long in the sun. We walked some more and found a very pleasant spot in the shade of trees for a picnic lunch - the usual elaborate arrangement with bread, 
fruit, tomatoes, cucumber, tuna, pate, cheese etc. Fortunately, given the heat, there was no alcohol, but plenty of water. This was the only occasion when we ate without wine and other alcoholic drinks! After a long and relaxing rest in the shade we braved the temperatures for a walk of several miles across the island to a tiny and pretty cove known as Baby Beach.
Some of this walk was shaded by trees but much of it was exposed to the sun and rather hard-going in the heat. There was a bit of a scramble down to the beach - Bernadette, Dirye and Sinan took to the water again while Gaby and we two sat in the shade on nice flat rocks. A slightly different walk back to the ferry quay took us via the small town on the island where we consumed welcome ice creams at one of the bars, before catching the 6pm ferry back to the mainland and the cars; we were back at La Rochelle around 7pm. Dinner at about 8.30 included a huge and very tasty fish (maigre) which provided generous helpings for all six of us. A sudden change in the weather to thunderstorms surprised no-one after the heat of today and we ate inside as the rain hammered down impressively beyond the windows. We all staggered off to bed just before midnight.
Friday 17 July 2009
We awoke late to a very different day for weather - the rain was still hammering down with rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. The temperature had fallen from over 30C to around 15C! After a late breakfast it brightened again and there were even sunny periods but it remained cool. In contrast with yesterday we had a relaxing day today, staying at the house for the morning and writing this update. After lunch we went shopping at the local Carrefour to buy provisions ready for our departure tomorrow - it will be strange to be "camping-caristes" again
after a week without the motorhome. Even the Smart car has had a week's rest parked in our friends' driveway. We will post this update later this afternoon and we have arranged to take our friends, including Dirye and Sinan, to dinner at a restaurant of their choice. This will be a treat from us to thank them for all their friendship, hospitality and generosity during the last week.
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