29TH  SEPT - Le Tour Recovery Day

A very windy day greeted us but nevertheless we live on Baguette et Croissant so off to the village to get some and some accessories for the cycles belonging to Madame et Monsieur Durrbach.  The village has a location au velo - bike hire and they had the octopus straps we needed and some compressed air for the long suffering bike Guy has been riding.  Fixed.

The open farmland of the area is so spacious the air so fresh and the taste of Atlantic ocean abounds



Being so windy we thought today would be a great day to recover and go up the Phar or the lighthouse.  This is one of the oldest in the world but we discovered on arrival that it closes for tours after summer so we did the new one anyway (1854).

A good steady climb saw us battling 100 knot winds at the top landing but what a view

The lighthouse in the ocean about two km out had a landing pier visible at this low tide time but 3 hours later the base was submerged in the ocean

The effort needed post lunch and after yesterday some fortification

a 360 degree shot of the local square near us on our way to dinner near the lighthouse

Monsieur with his seafood dish very happy

Our walk home through the darkness of the village - very serene and we adopted another cat on the way

Le Tour de L;Ilse de Re - A Magnificent Victory amongst the worst conditions in drcades.

With just one day of training in le Tour we set off for the first stage of St Martin en Re, about 21 kilometres to the east/  From the outset the wind hit us with full force at 60-70 km, head on all the way.

The north side of the island is home to thousands of oyster beds reachable only at low tide and cultivated for centuries on rock bases deep in the water. This is low tide.

Arriving at St Martin was a blessing in itself and we were going to get there even if it meant cheating on the back of the team car/  This is the view of the finishing line taken from the St Martin Church tower.

A shot of Caroline after the first stage lunch where she was clearly ahead of the rest of le peleton, Looking very pleased with herself

Etage 1 prize was a crepe/

Part of the Mission was to photo the woolly donkeys

On the return etage we spotted this eatery with a dozen oysters for Euro 6.5

Near Ars en Re we found one of two amazing amphibious creatures that let us come right up to them.

A panoramic shot of the harbour at Ars

Needless to say we won Le Tour and first prize was a Hublot Parker valued at $350.  The crowd roared. We got home at 7pm.

27th Sept 2015

Today was our first day out on our bicycles. Which was great for covering distance as the terrain was fairly flat. First mission of the day was the Boulongerie for our bagettes. Just 2 km down the road at St Clement des Baleignes.

Our hamlet is called Le Gillieux, a charming cacophony of houses and laneways that all lead to the ocean one way or the other.

 

After that we ventured out a little further to the beach and lighthouse. We watched a local carefully looking for his fish.

 

 

In the afternoon, we took off to explore further regions. It was great to see that we could manage it all fairly easily. So much scenery to admire and the salt pans/ lakes and great variety of bird life. Monsieur was ready.

And off he went with Caroline in close pursuit haha

The salt producing farms are a masterpiece of handwork for harvesting the best salt in the world.
The water starts accumulating in these larger lakes and as it reduces by evaporation it gets moved into shallower areas

At the end of the day we stopped at the lighthouse again, as there is a great array of shops and eateries, including this creperie, avec Monsieur who got himself into the photo quite happily.

25th Sept 2015,

We had a lovely day around Lourdes, out last day.  It's such a special place. Walking around the old village, finding amazing ice cream and crepes!

26th Sept 2015
Today we headed West to Il de Re, a little island situated just off La Rochelle. Off the west coast of France

We had 2 train trips starting from around 6.30 this morning and at La Rochelle caught the bus to the Ile, which took almost 2 hours of meandering around all the island villages to finally arrive at our village near the Phare (light house) at the far end. So after  3.30pm we finally got our luggage through the door at St Clements des Baleines . This is the home of the famous French sea salt,  Madame was very helpful and even took us shopping to a super market in Ars in her car which had everything you could ask for and more.  We felt we had bought most on offer there! Afterwards we headed down the Rue de la Plage to find the light house and see some of the sights.  The collection of little shops with interesting objects is immense and will require a few more visits to check out.

We found 2 light houses, one from 16 a54nd the taller one from 1892. Below is the older one.

 

Dinner at the local epicure, playing Keith Richards in the background, to Oysters for Guy and dips for me.

 

A new cheese to taste tonight...

\\Bonsoir from us

 

24th Sept - Climb the Fortress Day and explore some more of the Sanctuary

Beautiful sunny blue sky greeted us after we eventually dragged ourselves out of the apartment.
The Fortress overlooking Lourdes had been beckoning for 3 years so this was it.  It is built on a rock left by retreating glaciers 130,000 years ago and the Romans first used it around 300 AD.  Charlemagne then got the Saracens out of it after the crafty Bishop of Puy-en-Velay suggested Murat the Muslim leader could stay there if he converted.  The starving man jumped at the chance to end the misery of his people and the Saracen was baptised under the name of Lours which became the owns name of Lourdes.  Thus the fortress followed in the footsteps of the famous castle in the Czech Republic, the mighty Hrad Hukvaldy, which never fell.

This photo taken from the Sanctuary but our apartment is directly behind it just a couple of minutes walk away.

Fabulous views to the east from the Keep accessible from this tower stair case guarded by this man.



La view

The Chateau at the top held many relics and artifacts from the centuries past and it also held a display of art from a couple of local people who lived over 250 years ago.

The view back toward the Sanctuary was enhanced by a Dutch woman.

 

The view from out apartment of the fortress turret and we saw out window from there also, which has the blue shutters to the left of Hotel La Fontaine.

 

 

e walked won the river and got our first view to the east.

We spent the rest of the day and night aT the Sanctuary.

23rd Sept - The clouds broke and the sun shone through.

A good day to walk down to the Grotto, do some shopping and walk out of town to the Pic du Jer,s
After a baguette lunch we headed off.  The part of Lourdes not focused on the religious life is a nice place with lots of shops, bars and people having their lunch.
We soon left this behind us as the Pic came into view.  With its 50 degree inclination and a one kilometre reach into the sky, it made a formidable sight.

View of Lourdes from the top of the Pic - 900mt elevation via Funiculaire.

  On the summit.- Caroline D'Pic

On the way down the  view of this peak became clear.

Huge crowd tonight with the dry conditions.our estimate 20,000