{"id":552,"date":"2012-05-27T21:23:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T20:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=552"},"modified":"2025-11-23T05:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:32:18","slug":"a-maritime-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/05\/27\/a-maritime-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"A Maritime Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

We picked the wrong day for our first breakfast outside; a sea mist rolled in gobbling up the sunshine, just as we sat down to eat.\u00a0 Then it was sadly time to say goodbye to Le Bois Plage En R\u00e9.\u00a0 Eileen took us further on down the island to Ars En R\u00e9 for a stroll around both sides of the village and port, both of which were far more lovely than the name suggests…..<\/p>\n

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Ars En R\u00e9 laneway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After that we drove to Saint Clement des Baleines, parked, ate a baguette lunch and then cycled over to the lighthouse.\u00a0 We paid \u20ac3 to climb the 257 steps up the 55m high Phare des Baleines; my knees wished there was a lift.\u00a0 The scene from the top is splendid; 365\u02da views over the Breton Straights, the Straights of Antioche, the Vendee coastline, the Atlantic Ocean and back over the Ile de R\u00e9.<\/p>\n

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Looking up inside the Phare des Baleines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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View from the top of the Phare des Baleines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Rodney may be brilliant at keeping on the right side of the road when he\u2019s driving (still absolutely no dramas there), but when he\u2019s on a bicycle he keeps riding on the left.\u00a0 I\u2019ve threatened him, if he doesn\u2019t cycle on the right, the next car round the bend will make him mincemeat and I\u2019ll use him for tonight\u2019s pasta dish\u2026..<\/p>\n

Our next stop was right at the very end of the last road at Pointe du Fier.\u00a0 The car park had a 24 hour Aires de Service, so we chose to stay the night, along with eleven other happy campervans and to then travel back across the island to La Rochelle tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0 After dinner, with our now functioning Orange dongle, Rodney was able to check the cricket scores at Trent Bridge, so he\u2019s a happy camper too\u2026..<\/p>\n

On Sunday after our first, rather quick on-board douche and some breakfast we drove the full length of the Ile de R\u00e9 back to the mainland.\u00a0 There was an enormous queue of traffic coming on to and across the island, thankfully all travelling\u00a0in the opposite direction to us.\u00a0 It\u2019s another public holiday tomorrow and we can certainly understand the island\u2019s attraction.<\/p>\n

We parked at Les Minimes Marina, in La Rochelle, which can apparently accommodate 3,200 sailing \/motor boats.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen so many boats all tightly packed in as far as the eye can see.\u00a0 We ate a huge paella at a restaurant in the Le Gabut area, right next to the Vieux Port.\u00a0 It was very tasty, but not as good as yours, Rosie, because we didn\u2019t get any sticky bottom bits\u2026..<\/p>\n

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Entry into the old harbour at La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Strolling for hours around the fortified port and the old town really did wear us out.\u00a0 So we headed back to Eileen, I picked some poppies and cornflowers that were growing next to her front wheels and we drove south down the coast.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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La Rochelle shopping centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We passed Rochefort, drove right through the centre of Saintes and on to Cognac.\u00a0 We had problems finding a campsite and ended up driving right past Cognac to a campsite on the river near the\u00a0 village of Bourg-Charente.\u00a0 I\u2019ve saved a tiny jam jar and it is now full of flowers: purple clover, buttercups, daisies, cornflowers, poppies, grasses, etc.<\/p>\n

Voil\u1ea5\u2026I have decoration in our home and life is more beautiful for it.<\/p>\n

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Pont de Re<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We picked the wrong day for our first breakfast outside; a sea mist rolled in gobbling up the sunshine, just as we sat down to eat.\u00a0 Then it was sadly time to say goodbye to Le Bois Plage En R\u00e9.\u00a0 Eileen took us further on down the island to Ars En R\u00e9 for a stroll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8143,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/8143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}