L’Aigrefeuille d’Aunis to L’Aiguillon sur Mer

Monday 7th June
L’Aigrefeuille d’Aunis to L’Aiguillon sur Mer
We had a good bit of variety on our route today, starting off traveling through the small villages of Christophe-le-Pere, St Medard and Longeves in the environs of La Rochelle, but managing to avoid going too close to the town itself. You wonder how the people in these parts make a living as the villages are very quiet and most of the houses are modern bungalows all very well maintained. The farms are growing wheat and barley, they have a few cattle and have just finished bailing the hay.

They also seem to be giving the Afghanies a run for their money.

We passed several wind turbines on the edge of the Marais Poitevin all turning away silently, and we skirted along the south western edge of the marsh. After a couple of hours we dropped off the hills on to the marshes themselves at Andilly. It wasn’t too hot and once on the marshes there was the most spectacular bird life, so we made slow progress along the ditches, small canals and copses. As the day wore on it became much hotter and by the time we stopped for a picnic there was not a breath of wind and not much in the way of shade either. We tried to follow a marked bike route beside a dyke across

Ah - perfect cycle route and short cut.

the marsh to the coast but it was sometime since anyone had used it, the winter storms had covered it in debris and to make matters worse someone had set fire to it!

not so clear and it got worse!

So we had to turn around and retrace our steps along a positively scary major road which was very busy. We pedalled

crossing the canal bridge with an unconcerned boat coming up river

like hell and eventually were able to turn off without mishap and that included an enormous dog dragging a broken chain who chased us for 50yds. Sometime later we arrived at St Michel en l’Herm where the tourist office was still open. We had hoped to stay here and there was an excellent hotel on the other side of the square but in the usual way, it being Monday, nowhere was open tonight to either eat or stay. The obliging lady there advised us to go the extra 6 miles to L’Aiguillon sur Mer where we would be able to eat and sleep. Without this local knowledge it is very difficult to know where to start booking places, so we have found it is always better to ask - that being if the Tourist office is even open. We are having more luck at this time of year than last October.
The Hotel du Port in l’Aiguillon didn’t respond to a phone call or open it’s doors when we arrived so we rode around the block a few times, passing a very run down looking B&B on the way - but at least it was open. On our last circuit and when about to give up, the hotel had opened, so there was no discussion. We booked in for ‘Soiree Etape’ which we were told was the same as Demi Pension (but should be called ‘double pension’) as that wasn’t available for only 1 night –ie, dinner bed and breakfast. Dinner was an interesting affair. Firstly neither ourselves nor the waiters/resses could understand a single word the other said. We wondered if we had gone so far on the bikes we might have ended up in another country altogether. The first course was an excellent seafood platter, but when the main course appeared which we had been led to believe might have been lamb, it was truly terrible; large circles of mushy rubber in such a spicy sauce we had to leave it. We thought it might have been either lambs intestines or some rather high calamari. When the profiteroles arrived we were quite nervous as it looked as though fish paste had been squeezed into them. However all was well in the end on the pudding front. Afterwards we decided that perhaps the staff were all northern European and no better at speaking French than us.
Despite it’s name the town appears to be on an estuary so having expected to see the Atlantic for the first time in a few months we had to make do with a few boats up a muddy creek.

Muddy creek at L'Aiguillon sur Mer

In the night a gale got up and blew all Vivi’s washing onto the flat roof of the building next door – in my pyjamas I had to climb over the balcony and retrieve it from a large puddle. There is No peace!!