Up to La Rochelle

8 - 9 July

From St Palais to 'the farm'

Northbound the next day we passed more long beaches, reminiscent of many NZ stretches of coast. Sandhills gradually gave way to flatter perspectives and by the time we stopped for lunch we were into mudflats and a ferris wheel – more of the seaside atractions! In fact there was a whole funfair, with all sorts of stalls to take the punters’ money. Except that it was lunchtime. And except, probably, that it wasn’t yet ‘the season’, as it was not yet mid-July.

Before long we were in Marennes, the centre of oyster cultivation. It certainly is big business, and as we crossed the bridge into the town we spent some time watching boats ply up river, carrying the necessities of oyster cultivation, whatever that is! The cycle path skirted the town of Marennes, to avoid the busy main road but the signage was a little haphazard and we wasted quite a lot of time trying to find the next small road to follow on the outskirts.

Next hazard was a section of several kilometres or more that took us over a wide, grassy, bumpy paddock. We would have thought we were on the wrong track if we hadn’t met up with cyclists going both ways over this area, including some who had downloaded the GPS co-ordinates and assured us it was the correct ‘path’.

As the day drew on we found no reference to any camping sites, neither on map, internet or by asking, until we saw a notice on the track for the Auberge du Lac. Sounded promising and the lake was lovely – but strictly no camping! L’Auberge du Lac was a restaurant only, so no rooms available either. All was not lost, though. They were able to direct us to a Camping à la ferme. We’d read about camping on farms but never come across one. We followed instructions, asked more people, and eventually found ourselves in the right place! It was his first day open for the season, so we were a bit lucky there.


There were already some others there but we had a good choice of grassy sites. All we needed were some of the farmer’s products to cook. But no! Doesn’t sell anything. And we were miles away from anywhere.

Except the restaurant. Which the guy recommended. And showed us a shortcut to use. Great food, great evening. Fantastic hot showers. And our neighbours next morning made us a pot of coffee! How good can life get? [73.75km, our longest day at the time.]

We had two more days to get to La Rochelle, so not too pressed. Lots of crops and even some cows here and there. We passed through Rochefort and gradually gained the coast again, though we weren’t beside the sea much. Once again, summer resorts dotted the coast-line, with all sorts of attractions for the vacationer, especially horse-riding and sailing. With nothing to lose, we pushed on to La Rochelle, found the camping ground just as we were thinking of looking for it (eagle-eyed Rodney), put up the tent, locked up the bikes, and started exploring. 62 km, one of our longer days.

La Rochelle was to be the end of this part of our journey, 1100km from Sète on the Mediterranean Sea, over to the Atlantic Ocean at Lacanau-Océane and up the west coast to la Rochelle. We felt well pleased.

Epilogue: spent the next day sightseeing in La Rochelle, tested out the local mussels in the name of science, ditto the chocolate mousse, and caught the 8.30am train next morning to Beaugency. Using 3 local trains that take bikes, with 2 longish stopovers at Poitiers and Tours, we had a great day and spent a lot of time talking to a Frenchwoman, Marité, from Lille, who is married to an Englishman working in La Rochelle. She has spent the last three years in La Rochelle but her husband is retiring and they are shifting back to Lille. 

By chance we had taken a photo of their apartment block, as it was so unusual. Chris and Mathilde met us at Beaugency late in the afternoon and relieved us of our baggage, thus making the last 8km a much easier ride. Woohoo!