Monday 12th October.
Noirmoutier to St Gilles le Croix
Was a completely different day, wall to wall blue sky so had a great time wandering around the old town and the Chateau. It had been a stronghold from Norman times with some great paintings and a fantastic view from the turrets. There was a painting of some poor General being executed by a firing squad during the Revolution, slumped in his chair in the parade ground. Rather gorily the chair was exhibited beside the picture with some very large holes through the back of it. We then had to bike back to the mainland and head on down the coast to St Gilles Croix-de-vie. The bike route took us through lots of pine forests and sandy tracks and I fell off and gave myself a fat lip on my handle bars. It looks a bit like botox and is probably as painful so have decided against ever getting that done.
Alec is much better at staying upright on tracks obviously having spent much of his mis-spent youth doing wheelies on his bike. The tracks are very similar to those around Moreton and Bovington, a mixture of gravel and sand. And just when you get a bit of speed up to go down a hill they throw in a wooden barrier to stop you. – and it works! With so much baggage on the back, when the bike goes over, you just have to let it drop. We feel at bit like Ewan and Charlie on the Long Way Round!
This part of the coast is just one mass of holiday villages in the pine forests and amongst the dunes. Pretty ugly and you wouldn’t believe enough people would ever come here. But there are literally thousands of caravan sites and high rise flats so it must be a hive of activity in the summer. It is mostly closed now so has a rather desolate air with only (other) oldies wandering around having their holidays.
St Gilles Croix de Vie is one of the biggest sardine ports, so smelt pretty fishy. Surprisingly there were no sardines on the menu .We have this romantic notion of finding wonderful small restaurants serving bits of the local produce for the plat du jour, but in practice, they all have much the same to offer: ie steak or moules frites, and very seldom anything out of the ordinary. We have seen some advertising ‘Head of Veal’ and ‘Calves tongues’ which I don’t think would pull in the customers at home. The church had yet another large boat suspended from the roof with a lot of fishing nets and lobster pots surrounding alter. We have yet to find anyone who actually knows anything about this tradition.
Noirmoutier to St Gilles le Croix
Was a completely different day, wall to wall blue sky so had a great time wandering around the old town and the Chateau. It had been a stronghold from Norman times with some great paintings and a fantastic view from the turrets. There was a painting of some poor General being executed by a firing squad during the Revolution, slumped in his chair in the parade ground. Rather gorily the chair was exhibited beside the picture with some very large holes through the back of it. We then had to bike back to the mainland and head on down the coast to St Gilles Croix-de-vie. The bike route took us through lots of pine forests and sandy tracks and I fell off and gave myself a fat lip on my handle bars. It looks a bit like botox and is probably as painful so have decided against ever getting that done.
Alec is much better at staying upright on tracks obviously having spent much of his mis-spent youth doing wheelies on his bike. The tracks are very similar to those around Moreton and Bovington, a mixture of gravel and sand. And just when you get a bit of speed up to go down a hill they throw in a wooden barrier to stop you. – and it works! With so much baggage on the back, when the bike goes over, you just have to let it drop. We feel at bit like Ewan and Charlie on the Long Way Round!
This part of the coast is just one mass of holiday villages in the pine forests and amongst the dunes. Pretty ugly and you wouldn’t believe enough people would ever come here. But there are literally thousands of caravan sites and high rise flats so it must be a hive of activity in the summer. It is mostly closed now so has a rather desolate air with only (other) oldies wandering around having their holidays.
St Gilles Croix de Vie is one of the biggest sardine ports, so smelt pretty fishy. Surprisingly there were no sardines on the menu .We have this romantic notion of finding wonderful small restaurants serving bits of the local produce for the plat du jour, but in practice, they all have much the same to offer: ie steak or moules frites, and very seldom anything out of the ordinary. We have seen some advertising ‘Head of Veal’ and ‘Calves tongues’ which I don’t think would pull in the customers at home. The church had yet another large boat suspended from the roof with a lot of fishing nets and lobster pots surrounding alter. We have yet to find anyone who actually knows anything about this tradition.
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