Le Bourgenay – St Martin-de-Ré (Île de Ré) – L Rochelle
Monday 6th – Saturday 11th July
Days 44 – 49
It’s too darn hot! – as the song goes, and very little wind. Bob had been up half the night watching the footie – so he was a bit like a zombie… We treated ourselves to Crepes with Ice Cream over-looking Le Bourgenay’s developing harbour complex, which is currently mid-build.
It’s planning on becoming quite a place and later we walked the 1km into town (a roundabout with two shops!) for some bread and a quick beer in the Tabac (one has to do these things!) We passed what was probably the local mansion or Bourg and an angel watching over.
We invited David and Elaine (Whiskey Mac) onto Boni for drinks – very sociable – a pizza/quiche & salad supper on board and we went to bed as the sun set – ready for a 0700 departure on tomorrow – Tuesday.
The local hairdresser’s salon!
The best thing about leaving at this time was that it was cool; but the wind was negligible… on the beam but only about 9 knots, which kind of gave us an extra half a knot with the engine on. We were bound for the Île de Ré – St Martin in particular, which is a 17.5 nautical mile passage. The reason for leaving this early was so that we would arrive at St Martin at around 1030 – which is exactly what happened, with HW being 1130. We “sailed” in company with Le Jouannet – Stuart and Nina’s boat.
You have to call the Port up on arrival – I was trying to explain in my best French that we needed a berth for 2 nights – maybe more. The harbour is gated by a lock with a sill, so it is etiquette to allow the departing boats to come out first; the harbour master is in charge of this and insists that you circle in a small outer harbour area before you are called in; this was going to take 15 minutes to wait; then the ferry came in, then other boats were leaving and arriving all simultaneously and at the same time!
The Port Captain was very precise about our length – we always say we are 10m, but in actual fact we are 9.95m; so he looks us up in his book and says you are only 9.95m…! ( must practise: longeur – neuf metre quatre-vingt-quinze!). We are rafted alongside another boat whose decks are full of clutter and frankly a bit of a nightmare for us to traverse as the guy has his Walker-Bay rigid dinghy across his fore-deck.
Soon the lock gates close and we are penned in. Le Jouannet, being 13m long, is in a completely different position.
We were in and acclimatising… how about a game of Scrabble? OK, says I. (Good result for me – 308 vs Bob’s 199 – but he would insist on picking up vowels: I, I, I, I !!!)
After a quick foray into town to get our bearings, we decide to get the bikes off the boat – all a bit of an effort across Monsieur Chaos; but we manage. Off to the small Carrefour Express for some essentials and then Stuart and Nina invite us for drinks on their boat – very agreeable. Their boat is a 43’ Beneteau; an ex-charter boat – lovely!
The Île de Ré is a charming, low-lying island, perfect for cycling (there are extensive cycle-ways) with a population of about 17,650; the island is about 30kms long and 5kms wide with the highest elevation being about 20m (66’) above sea level. It has a varied history with a siege in 1627 and a large citadel by the port of St Martin built by Vauban in 1681 – with expansive fortifications. Apart from tourism, the salt pans serve as a serious industry here.
Wednesday 8th July – dawned with a thick fog upon us (due to yesterday’s heat) and we wanted to make a plan. We decided to go out on the bikes going south-westwards, through the extremely large Citadel, following the very brilliant cycle paths to Le Flotte – a charming harbour/port which was a hive of activity with many harbourside bars and shops as well as a market. We stopped for a drink and ambled our way through the busy streets.
Some pics of La Flotte harbour and an aerial shot (pinched):
Back on the bikes, towards our home port we stopped off for “Le Sandwich” – consumed in the shade under a tree – then to the beach where we erected our beach tent, donned our swimmers and dived in (or should I say dipped, as it was pretty shallow). However, on swimming out, we had a good cooling swim and a relax.
The cycle paths are great – the cobbles that give St Martin part of its character are not! (Definitely shaken, not stirred!)
In the evening we went out for a drink with Stuart and Nina in the town and later watched the sunset – spectacular!
On Thursday, the heat was getting the better of us and we struggled….
So we went out for a “Formula déjeuner” in a local restaurant with flaked cod for a starter and then Sea Bass for a main, polished off with Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream – what’s not to like?
On Friday, I was determined not to have a repeat of Thursday! We set off on our bikes to the north of the Ile-de-Re at 0930 (still relatively cool), via Le Bois Plage-en-Ré and La Courade-sur-Mer – both places with markets; although we didn’t stay long as we wanted to get up to Arz-en-Ré..
This was via quite a network of long, straight cycle ways – and there were a lot of cyclists out.
We past the extensive salt pans, for which the island has many and is famous. It is arduous, manual labour and workers can be seen raking the salt into mini pyramids. How they make it pure from mud/sand – I do not know!
We cycled right up to the port at Arz – tricky to access as it’s only about 1 hour either side of highwater to get in or out by boat! We were hot! Bob said it was breakfast time (again) but we arrived between mealtimes, so a Grand Café au lait and a bottle de l’eau sufficed and a pack of a dozen chouquettes – which are pastry/light style doughnuts from the market (they were quite dry, but nice!)
On the way back to the boat we were able to stop off to see the donkeys, the ones famous for wearing pantaloons or culottes! You never heard of them? Oh, come on! These donkeys are important (especially for such an underrated animal). Their history is from the decades of them carrying the salt from the salt-pans. However, their owners noticed them tapping their legs to get rid of the insects and mosquitos. Their legs would become infected, so they designed trousers for the donkeys to wear to deter the mozzies and bugs, and this has been a thing on the Ile de Re ever since. We found the farm where the donkeys are kept and heard a lot about them all, including a larger, shaggy donkey who is mated with horses to make mules! (Only 350 left in the world apparently!)
The donkeys (in trousers) used to give donkey rides in the park in St Martin, but this is no longer the case as the summers have been getting hotter. So the model has now changed to making soap using donkey milk – and very soft and beautiful this is! We met Calina – she is one of the 15 donkeys kept on the farm. Caline means hug in French and her name is the feminine version.
Donkeys pantalons:
The rear view!
We cycled back to the boat (for a rest in the afternoon) before going to the Inter-marché for a shopping trip.
On Saturday, we knew we had to leave (sadly – we had become quite “at home” here!) The boat moored on our outside had been unoccupied for a couple of days, due to a wedding, so we were a bit dubious if the owners would appear or not. We spent the morning having a spruce up and getting ready for sea, stowing the bikes and a general clean through. By 1130 I was soaked to the skin, as were ALL my clothes (enough said!) which called for a shower and a complete change. I swear, I spent at least 5 minutes under a cold shower to reduce my body temperature. (Please close your eyes!)
The lock gates opened on time at 1215 and still no evidence of Mr “Father of the Groom” – heck! What to do? But then, he arrives, in a big rush and anyone who is leaving, gathering by the lock or ready to get out faster than you can say Bob’s a pirate!
Off we go under motor. No expectation of sailing today for our 9 nautical mile trip – wind was a negligible NW 3-4 knots – Bimini up, sun hats, sunscreen and sunnies on – a motor to La Rochelle.
Then… out the other side!
We pass under the bridge that joins the mainland to the Ile-de-Re – it seems that we might have only centimetres to spare – but in fact – probably 3 metres!
La Rochelle is a large port and quite a large urban conurbation with some c. 80,000 inhabitants with a huge history of sea-faring.
Approaches to La Rochelle:
We arrive through the historic twin medieval towers into the Basin D’Ecoage – which is right in the centre of town. Despite having been booked in there was a bit of a “we’ll have to make a space for you” going on. The Port Office is in a fabulous old building – with very acceptable air-con (yes!) and we booked in for two nights. It’s busy here – lots of noise and festivities – which will apparently last for 5 days and nights… Hmmmm….
Stuart and Nina had also come across to La Rochelle today and we met up for a drink so to make a plan for later… England are still in the world cup football – a match tonight at 2300 (heck!) We retired back to Boni; had some supper and topped up the water on board (this time the cap on the tank was securely on)!