Île-D’Yeu (Continuing our stay) Tuesday 30th June – Thursday 2nd July
Days 38 – 40
It’s great to crack on and get to places – you may have noticed my copying the French expression at the beginning of my blog: À donf! – which means just that. But equally important to stop, take time, relax and enjoy – between the two we garner some kind of balance.
So we have stopped at the Île-D’Yeu. This is a delightful island where a huge amount of folk get around on push-bikes although there is a land train, the electric bus and of course cars and vans etc. But the traffic here is not overwhelming and this made cycling around on our Brompton’s all the more enjoyable and a really quick way to get into town if you wanted something from the Boulangerie! The Île-D’Yeu has a population of approximately 4,600 inhabitants and is a small island about 8 x 2.5 miles, being part of the Vendée region of France (Atlantic sea-bord).
So our arrival the day before didn’t belie the huge amount of sailing boats that were about to descend into Port Joinville. The French are very much a sailing nation and sailing is one of it’s national sports (along with rugby, football and cycling). Very soon all the berths were chock-a-block and the big area right near us full of rafted boats. Crews getting into town (& into the bars).
On Tuesday morning there was a mass Exodus, and within about 15 minutes, around 0800 the whole lot of them had vanished – quite extraordinary! This was all part of a Vendée Rally – they were a serious lot – serious about racing AND partying!
Monday afternoon & Tuesday – more jobs, jobs, jobs… fixing the crane on the starboard aft quarter, in place to hopefully making the lifting of the outboard engine onto the back rail easier (we’ll see) and then appropriately, placing the outboard bracket on that side to take the engine – I think only one bolt fell in the drink (not too bad!) Then the Ensign staff had to be re-located to the Port aft quarter, as it was now way too busy on Starboard; the sprayhood had become dis-attached along the deck-line, so that was fixed, and then we realised what had happened the day before during our sail. Suddenly a circular piece of plastic pinged off into the air… no chance that we would catch it – into the water it fell. “What was that?” … maybe one of the sliders (holds the main sail into the mast)? Nope – all present and correct… what could it be? The realisation soon dawned as I inspected one of the blocks around the main sheet (the rope that controls the mainsail) that one of them had half its nylon pulley broken – that was it. Relieved to find that we had identified the miscreant, it was the excuse to visit the chandlers, of which there are two here locally. The first block we found was €161.00 (eeek!); the next, a lesser model about €45.00 – but much smaller. Hmmm… I’m sure we have several spares of things like this loitering about the boat. Of course we did!
After a quick salad-type lunch we got the Bromptons out and decided to cycle to the southerly side of the island to Le Port de la Meule (FYI: meule means millstone).
This is a charming little fishing port full of little boats, a sweet chapel up on the hill overlooking the port and a few rough rocks to clamber to look out to sea – whereupon the realisation that pirates were not far away!
Back on the bikes – over some rougher roads (slippy/loose shaley tracks) not my fav., towards Le Vieux Chateau – which is exactly what it is – an old castle and on to a delightful beach for a stop, swim and snooze – under our newly acquired beach tent.
Inside L’Eglise Notre Dame du Port
Such pretty stained glass windows.
On our cycle home we stopped off at the local church – l’Eglise Notre Dame du Port – a beautiful, calm space with pretty stained glass windows and several model boats hanging from the ceiling (I love how they do this).
Then we came across a rather interesting looking restaurant, which has seemingly won several awards: La Bafouettes. Only problem was that it looked decidedly closed. But, there was a number on the door; so I rang – a long answer-machine message in French ensued – hmmm – I had no idea what that meant; anyway in my awful French, I asked if we could a meal for 2 this evening – please ring me back on my number, blah, blah… Not holding my breath – probably we could find another eatery in town. However, about an hour later the Maitre D’ called me back and we had a place. Time to scrub up and put on some smart clothes!
Meal alert! 
The food was well worth it – very original: appetiser of cauliflower soup with pistachios, with curried tuna on toast, starters: Pate Foie de Gras or Langoustines with a sumptuous set custard accompaniment and then a fabulous Turbot & spinach main course. We were too full for a dessert, so finished with a coffee.
On Wednesday, we were rather late getting up (!) but Bob soon hopped onto his bike to the boulangerie. Well worth it as I had asked for a Pain au Raisin which I adore, and since we’d been here, I hadn’t had one. Well – the one he bought back was about double the size expected… had to be forced down – it’d be rude not to!
We decided to have a wander into town, the market along the front was closing (note to self- Wednesday is market day here) and found a very acceptable eatery right at the end of the row of bars and restaurants called La Plancha du Pécheur – a fish restaurant. This was a busy place (which is why you choose a restaurant, right?) and we had the last table!
A plateful of 12 delicious Oysters (no.3) was ordered followed by brochette (kebab) de thon (tuna), washed down with a bottle of Muscadet sur Lie – what’s not to like?
After, Bob retired to the boat; however, I was determined to post the card I had written to mum – how hard to find the post office? Very hard! The one on the map DOES NOT EXIST – (thanks Google!) and this was the first time that the electronic map had let me down; eventually I found the real post office- but then the queue… 15 minutes later I’d bought 4 stamps (forward planning here) and posted the card. After a quick pick up from the super-market it was almost time to get ready to go – go where you might ask?!
Eng-er-land were playing DR Congo in the World Cup and armed with my computer (so I could catch up the blog) and a couple of baguette sandwiches which Bob had knocked up, off we went to the Bar Maritime. Football is not a thing that I’m very interested in, but this little bar had several supporters in there – one wearing an England flag draped as a cape (why do they do that?) It was a pretty painful watch (if you were watching), but thankfully near the end England scored two goals and they were through to the next round, which I think is Mexico on Saturday.
The moon rose at about 2325 – my camera’s not great, but here it is!
Thursday dawned a bit on the cool side and it was time to get that washing on. The marina has it’s own set up for washing and drying, so this was easy to facilitate and didn’t take too long.
Out on the bikes again – perfect weather as it wasn’t too hot – down to the lighthouse at the most southerly tip of the island called La Pointe de Corbeaux – empty roads, beautiful flowers, huge pine type trees and easy cycling.
After a little stop there – was low tide, so plenty of rocks to be seen, we went onto a place called La Croix where you can buy a snack-style lunch from Chez Georgette – in effect a meal-deal for €8.90 a throw. This is Georgette, serving her food from a mobile van and she is making a good trade here from the passers-by!
This is right by a lovely, empty beach – I should imagine it’s very popular in the holidays though.
A cycle back to the marina via the pretty St Sauveur – sleepy for the central town of the island.