Well, having spent so many days recharging our own inner batteries, we cleaned up Eileen and drove her down to Sion-su-la-Ocean for a short stroll and then back to St Gilles for a long stroll around the now deserted town. When the showers started up again, we ate a snail (no, the pastry version), dropped in to the supermarche and went back to Kevin & Julia’s for our last night in La Fenouiller. I cooked up some veal and mushrooms in a cream sauce and we watched some TV for the last time until……?
On Tuesday we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, so we washed all the sheets and towels, cleaned and locked up the house and headed for the local garage. On the way there we drove over something that made such a loud noise, I thought one of our tyres had exploded. Everything seemed fine (and still is), so Rodney checked the tyre pressures, topped up on diesel and at midday, we finally got on the road heading south again. We passed Les Sables d’Olonne; we’ve already been there seven years ago when we last visited Julia and Kevin, and we pulled up next to a beach just west of Tranche-sur-Mer. After the usual lunch, we walked over the dunes to the incredibly windy beach. There were 30-knot winds and numerous windsurfers and kite boarders taking advantage of it. Every sail and kite was different and they made the sky look so colourful. We walked a fair way along the beach and then jumped back in to Eileen to warm up and head further south, past La Rochelle to The Ile de Ré.
I picked a campsite in Le Bois Plage en Ré that is next to the beach on Avenue de pas Bouefs, which sounds like the ‘avenue with no beef’; I must have that wrong….? It’s a lovely spot and, despite the lack of toilet paper, soap and toilet seats, it’s a lovely campsite. After dinner last night, we walked over the dunes and strolled along the still windy and now very chilly beach watching the sun set at the far end.
