France May to Jul 17 - week 3 - 10 to 16 Jun 17

Sat 10 Jun was a beautiful warm sunny day. Got up, got the fresh bread and croissants for breakfast, did the white wash and bedding and hung it all out to dry then set off for the market in Pornic and then.... disaster!  A spoke snapped with a loud bang on the bumpy road, buckling the wheel and making further progress untenable. Back we walked and then sat around by the pool in the sunshine. Shame about the little screeching brats though. How can something so little be so piercingly loud. We never did see Pornic with the tide in.

When your bike is bust then alcohol is the answer!

Sun 11 Jun. Drove down the coast to an aire at Ste Hilaire de Riez. The promised sunshine didn't materialise so our bask on the beach was a short lived affair. However, we did enjoy a beautiful sunset (and a cut foot from the incredibly sharp sand around here).

On Monday we stopped at Decathlon in Les Sables d'Olonne to see if they could fix a wheel spoke but we were being a bit optimistic expecting them to know about bikes, so we went bikini shopping for hours instead. We then stopped in Leclerc in Lucon for more bikini shopping, then Decathlon in La Rochelle, who told us it would take a week to fix a spoke, so more bikini shopping then over the impressive bridge, laden with bikinis, onto the Île de Ré, pitched up at a campsite in Le Bois-Plage-en-Ré and walked into the local town.

Pizza vending machine. Interesting. 

On Tuesday I took the wheel to the local bike shop and the charming repairman (a Stade Rochelais supporter) fixed the spoke and trued the wheel in no time at all. Stick that up your pathetic derrieres Decathlon, you useless ******!!  Complete with repaired wheel we wandered around the market and then test drove the wheel riding across the excellent, if confusing, cycle tracks to Saint-Martin-de-Ré. There we had an ice cream (but didn't dare the oyster and caviar flavour) and got caught in a sudden rain shower on the way back.

Most of the cemeteries have a small commonwealth war graves commission plot. The one at Bois plage has a memorial to some of the cockleshell heroes whose bodies were washed up nearby

On Wednesday we continued our cycling expedition, going to St Martin and then on to La Flotte, calling at the local wine cooperative on the way back.  Unfortuneately, they only sold wine by the carton and its a bit difficult carrying 6 bottles on a bike. Additionally, the Rose this far north seems quite thin and sharp compared to the more robust Rose in the South.

The only shop in France entirely devoted to Tintin!

Thursday was market day in Bois Plage (actually, every day is market day in Bois Plage). However, we cycled to the market and she bought a pair of shoes at 20 euros and 4 t shirts at 2 euro each. It's actually cheaper to buy a T shirt and chuck it rather than wash it.  We then cycled onto the next town up the island, La Couarde-sur-Mer, where I found a mariniere sweater for 5 euros - a real bargain day. 

On Friday we undertook a long cycle to Ars en Re (strange that Ars is at the head of the island). It's a pretty village but the traffic and the cars ruined it, especially the vintage "look at me in my lovely vintage car" making a bloody din driving round and round. It was very interesting to watch the salt being farmed on the way. After such a long ride we felt that we deserved to dine out at the local restaurant, which had good food but the service was slooooooooow.  Then the Foghorn family from the Netherlands moved in and boomed away, drowning out all conversation in the restaurant  (the German couple on the next table also shared our views on the noise of our cloggy friends).