We rolled in to La Rochelle station and were met by Valère, a friend of Léo’s, who took us to his boat. Léo is preparing his small sailing boat for a trip around the Mediterranean in October, so it is in the process of being worked on to make it water-tight and comfortable. Nevertheless he shared his time and boat with us. (Bikes locked to the mast!!)
La Rochelle has the biggest sailing boat port and it IS enormous. They are also in the middle of adding a whole new section to the port. Boats as far as the eye can see - small boats to huge catamarans and sleek ocean-going craft.
We had come up to La Rochelle for the annual national festival de la musique. Last year we had spent a fantastic night in Auvillars, not all that far from Gramont, where Guy and Rosemary have the house-sitting. Valère suggested la Rochelle for 2014 and we were not sorry. The town was full of people with the same aim and by early evening people were making their way from all directions into the centre of town. Musicians were set up about every 100 metres and people crowded around one lot for a while, then moved on to their next choice. Just imagine Wellington with different gigs every 100 meters or so all the way up Cuba Street, along Courtenay Place, along the waterfront.... There were some which involved dancing, many with 5-6 people in a group, and all very entertaining and talented.
Feeling somewhat hungry we chose a Breton place, since two of our party were Breton, and ate to the entertainment of two groups equally spaced on either side - not easy to distinguish one from the other but pleasant. We moved on through the town, stopping as appropriate, ending up at the Irish Pub (not unusual for France) and finally moving towards home some time after midnight. A number of people were also wending homewards but the crowds were still big and in fact we heard the booming of bass notes well into the morning.
We'd left our bikes (hired in our case, rather than taking our expensive bikes into the town on that night) just on the outskirts of the old port, so were able to quickly get back 'home'.
The Tour St Nicholas is one of three towers near the old port, and climbing to the top of one of them is obligatory for the view. More spiral staircases! Great views over the old port, where musicians were playing on a boat - while we were there, they finished their stint, sailed away and were replaced by another group on a boat. Great views over beyond the old port to the new - boats, boats and boats...
We also went to museum which tells of the New World, mostly Canada - the content is fairly general and the sort of thing found in Canada but worthwhile all the same. The story of the siege of La Rochelle is illustrated with engravings of the ships surrounding the town, and also the Ile de Ré, though not a lot of detail in this particular museum. There was not very much on the slave trade, especially compared with the Nantes museum, even though La Rochelle was second to Nantes in the trade and it's early prosperity came from the slave trade - it was a major port in the trade triangle (tradeable goods to) West Africa, (slaves to) Carribean, (sugar to) Europe. But there were interesting angles and we are glad we went there. On the top floor is a display made entirely of recycled material, depicting the slave trade era.
The Maritime Museum takes the form of three typical ships - a weather ship [France 1, 1958-1985], a sailing ship and a tug/rescue boat. Each boat has videos and static displays - the meteorological ship contains most of the information and you walk around the ship seeing it as it was, with various cabins having open entry, the dining areas and kitchens still there, and photo/video displays taking up a good part of the space. Handy restaurant for a coffee too! The weather ship used to sail into the North Atlantic - pretty wild weather at times. The rescue ship used to be out in the storms, when everybody else wasn't, with any luck.
Metres from our boat was a swimming beach and I am happy to report that we did actually go in and enjoy the somewhat cold ocean.
Best memory - the last night, starting late and finishing in darkness (10.30pm dark) - out on the wharf to cook fresh fish, with Valère's friends and another friend from a nearby boat - who also whipped up some crêpes in the manner of her grandmother - which we ate, with jam, as the night descended. Merci à tous.
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