5th Sat in the church square this morning listening to a guitarist, drinking coffee and reading an English newspaper. How civilised. These coffee morning concerts are a common summer occurrence.
8th. It is the turn of the church in St George de Didonne to host the Thursday evening concert today – yes I know it is Tuesday but there are already two concerts, one in Mathe and the other in Saujon, scheduled for Thursday. We are spoilt for choise. I go with my friend and neighbor Luce. It is a trio of piano, cello and clarinet and quite sublime.
10th Went to see the new version of Du Maurier’s “My Cousin Rachel” at the cinema. Original sound track with French subtitles. Most satisfactory!
11th. Cycled into Royal this morning as I have been wanting to take some photos of their answer to the Muizenberg Beach Huts for some time!
With the post war and art deco buildings along the prom it really does have the feel of another epoch.
The sailors were out in force and the trans estuary ferry was in port.
15th. In this wonderfully democratic secular republic today is a public holiday, “Assumption”m as in of “Mary, Holy Mother of Jesus”! St George de Didonne had Cuban music and dancing in the street and a number of shops open.
Following the crowds, the noise, the smoke, smell and flashes of coloured light I find myself on the beginning of the sweeping bay of Royan beach watching the firework display.
In the end I got a bit carried away with the way the camera could capture a fragment of time that was so quickly lost to the eye and the glorious reflections of light on water.
16th Today was St George de Didonne’s turn to do the fireworks and as usual with big crowd events in Europe now-a-days security was strong with big earth moving equipment and concrete bollards blocking all the entrances to the beach road and discrete placing of armed security personnel.
A typical summer evening scene in any French village, Holluhocks and blue shutters.
20th. Pippa arrived yesterday evening and one of the things she decided she would like to do was the lighthouse boat trip. So after breakfast we cycled along the fronts of St George and Royan to the ticket office to book her a passage for tomorrow morning. Then we cycled on to St Palaise-sur-Mer where we stopped for lunch before returning home. And very nice it was too.
21st. Pippa went off to the light house and I packed the van in preparation for our trip to Saints and environs. However when she got back armed with a brochure advertising the charms of the wine region on the other side of the Esturay it was all change. Seduced by names like Pauillac and Medoc and Chateau with names like Lafite-Rothschild; Marquis de Terme and Latour we had lunch at home then headed south. Our first night stop was at Mortange.
22nd Pippa was delighted with the arrival of the bakery van and joined the line to buy morning croissants.
After breakfast we headed on south with a stop at Chateau Beaulon for Pippa to do a quick tasting and buy some Pineau and Cognac. At Blaye we had time on our hands between ferrys so we explored the citadelle where we found a good place to have lunch before taking Cassidy for a good run in the dry moat.
Arriving on the other side we were disappointed to find that the Chateau visits and wine tastings were more or less “by appointment” only and that mere plebs like us were expected to be content with viewing rich people’s houses from the road or on rare occasions from their gardens, at a safe distance! Two of them feature below.
Whilst all very grand they were mostly quite new and lacking in history or the charm invested by a certain amount of age and decay (I should know!)
We found an Aire right on the coast at St Estéphe and were amazed at the number of big boats that passed.
23rd We set off in search of an Abbey and a Roman ampitheatre, both of which took some finding, the first of which was closed and the second of which didn’t even merit a photo! The church however was open and the exterior views were pleasant.
We decided to cross to the Atlantic side and have lunch before heading back on the ferry to Royan and on from there to show Pippa the charmes of Mornac.
Pippa was delighted with her sardines.
24th We picked up some Oysters on our way home and had a walk round St George before having lunch. (At this rate we are in danger of getting the reputation of “Ladies that DO lunch”)
Back home we shelled the Oysters, rested, showered and had a supper of Oysters, bread and wine on the balcon prior to meeting Luce for our lift to the concert at Breuillet.
The concert was a duo of pianoforté and barroc violin performing Mozart, C.P.E Bach, Schubert and Beathoven followed by the usual gallet and unidentifiable booze. A good evening, and a fine way to end Pippa’s most welcome visit.
29th. A lovely evening walk along the front with Cassidy displayed the lighthouse in silhouette and children at play on the beach trampoline.
31st. Thursday evening concert at L’Eguille-sur-Sudre this evening. Very good with a trio of Piano, Viola and Cello and followed as usual by cider and
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capetocarpe 