1st. Spent the night at Tonnay Charente in an Aire with electricity and hot showers.Ah! Luxury.
2nd. Moved on to St George and into the Aire at the Port to await the arrival of Bob and Jacquie, friends from boating days in St Jean and now back home in Tasmania.They arrived late afternoon and we had drinks at the van and planned tomorrow.
3rd. Drove to Meschers Port and walked to Talmond where we had lunch and then walked home. Round trip of 14k!
4th. Bob and Jacquie left early and I spent the next two days working in the garden at 34bis in preparation for the hand over.
6th. Moved to the Aire at Merchers Port in order to have electricity to catch up on work. It is a lovely spot.
7th. Early morning walk, with fishing boats and fishing shacks, swallows gathering before heading south and my Sunshine Boy.
In the afternoon we walked to the building plot and timed the walk from there to the facilities. 3mins to the complex with cinema, boulangerie and Asian/French fusion restaurant; 10 mins to the supermarket and 12 mins to the village cenre.
8th. Walked into town this morning and captured the mood a bit starting with the Sunday morning market.
In the Church Square shops were open and people were sitting in the sun enjoying a coffee here or….
…at the Coffee Shop down the road.
A nice meander getting to know what is soon to become my home village.
10th. Cassidy and I took a clifftop walk this morning in search of Les Moulins, the roofs of which could be seen from the Aire. The ones we found were in various states of renovation and conversion.
This one had a plaque stating that it dated from 1823.
While we were here we could also enjoy a birs eye view of the Caralettes that hugged the cliff edge below and the precipitous paths down to them with their dire warnings of DANGER!
Baiting for a bite!
I’m off to the local cinema this afternoon to see an English language screening of “Once upon a Time in Hollywood” and then back into St G to strip the last remaining plumbs off my tree and stew them up for breakfasts.
16th. Paul arrives today for a ten day holiday with me. Off to the airport in the afternoon in good time for his flight arrival at 16.35. He was not on the flight! After much discussion with the staff on the information desk I finally managed to learn that he had been re-routed via Lyon and would be arriving at 10.05. Needless to say the flight was delayed and he eventually arrived at 10.45. And the reason for all this? His travel agent had told him that his transfer bus between CdeG and Orly airports would be free. It wasn’t and Paul didn’t have enough Euro for the Euro 23 bus fare. He went to change his SAR250 which should have, at the very least, generated Euro15, but he was ripped off and only given Euro9 so he still didn’t have enough. So rather than just give him the bus ticket in exchange for what he had (four euro short) Air France decided to reroute him from CdeG to the far east of the country and back to the far west! Don’t tell me that this was the cheaper option!
We were both rather shattered by the time we got home after midnight.
One of the first things we did was go into the market at Royan and buy some fresh prawns. Which we bought home and Paul cooked for our lunch!
Paul on our walk to the lighthouse and little port of St Georges.
Another walk took us to the Point de Suzac to look at the WW2 German defenses of the estuary.
After all that walking, a well deserved ice cream!
We took a day out to La Tremblade, stopping on the Côte Sauvage on the way for Cassidy to have a run on the beach.
Paul enjoyed the boats and the calamari lunch to follow!
A last walk along Srt G’s Promanade…
…and a trip to a local round-a-bout to satisfy Paul’s fascination with Giant Pine Cones…
and all to quickly the ten days are up and it is time to take Paul back to La REochelle airport again for his homeward flight.
capetocarpe 