St. Trojan les Bains

 

Packing up Marge this morning we realised she's like a mobile sports shop. Besides carrying food, clothing and other essentials she has to lug around two inflatable canoes, paddles, canoe clothing and wetsuits, two Brompton bicycles, walking poles and boots, a collapsible fishing rod and equipment. And yes, we hope to make use of all of it. We needed to be away in good time this morning as it was Sunday and the supermarkets close at 12.30 pm. Look Marge an English registered van. That's six now. The owner of the van said we were the first vehicle from the U.K. he had seen in the two weeks he'd been in France. 

Food shopping done we headed for the bridge.

Marge sailed up. You're keen to leave Ile de Re aren't you, Marge? Places to see, people to meet. The traffic travelling in the other direction was heavy. This was March, it must be horrendous accessing the island in the height of summer.

At Rochefort we stopped to service Marge and then lunch at a table at the aire. The English van from the supermarket was also there. But Marge was keen to move on, so we continued towards the Ile d'Oleron, the road running beside a cycle route we had cycled on years ago. To the right we could see the transporter bridge, which we'd been on with our bikes twice. 

Our arrival on the island of Oleron took us by surprise. Unlike Ile de Re it was more, 'rustic'. A shanty town of oyster farmer's huts greeted us. Marge happily bowled along to our chosen overnight stop at St. Trojan les Bains.

The temperature 21c we changed in to shorts and walked out to explore.

Around the port a lot of the oyster huts were now occupied by artists. The tourist information office was nearby, thankfully, as we'd not thought to ask for a map of the island when we visited the office in La Flotte. Tomorrow we want to cycle out and explore more of the island.

Keen to save Marge's facilities, Angela stopped off at the oyster farmers privy. That too was a little rustic, but clean. At 5 pm, or was it 6pm? We suddenly realised we'd been running an hour behind all day. The nearby church bells rang out six times to confirm this. 

Marge has six companions this evening. We are all parked across the road from the seafront where the bridge connecting the island to the mainland can be clearly seen.

Early evening sirens were a plenty. Six emergency vehicles arrived alongside the aire on the main road. Then after around thirty minutes a helicopter arrived with medical staff. Pompiers and police were everywhere. Of course, all this commotion drew a crowd, including us. After some time the patient in the ambulance was transferred to the helicopter. O.K. everyone, excitement over. 

It didn't become dark until just before nine this evening. Wonderful. Checking the weather forecast for the next few days we can see a change coming. A little rain and some hail, with night time temperatures down to -1 for a couple of nights. We will probably not spend too long on the island of Oleron, heading further south chasing better weather seems like a good idea.