26 June - 6th July
From the lle de Ré, we came up and over the 4km bridge, wound our way to and through La Rochelle thence along the canal Marans - La Rochelle, which is currently drained or having the silt pumped out of it for most of its length. When finished they should have a navigable canal once again.
It was along the canal path that I didn’t quite make it through the barrier to keep motorbikes out and caught my pannier-bag on an iron rod. Luck was on our side. A passing cyclist stopped to check that I was okay and we recognised each other’s accents! He was a Fijian, who had gone to Hamilton Boys’ High and married a Hamilton girl. Well, I lay claim to being a Hamilton girl, too, having been born there, and we were invited to lunch - his home was a few km further along but we were able to stay at his speed and follow him home. He, wife Stephanie, and 3 year old Noah had just returned from a month away in the southern hemisphere so were pretty jet-lagged and it was extra-kind of them to take us in. Albert plays rugby in France and this is their sixth year there. His second year with La Rochelle. After 3 years in Paris they are really glad to have a house ‘in the country’, with a big lawn and plenty of room for barbecues and other gatherings. Room, too, for visitors, and we accepted their invitation to stay the night. They were hospitable, friendly and pleased to see kiwis. Albert’s younger cousin is in a training squad in La Rochelle, too, so watch for the rise of a new Fijian Rugbyman! Our thanks to the Vulivuli family for a wonderful stay.
It was along the canal path that I didn’t quite make it through the barrier to keep motorbikes out and caught my pannier-bag on an iron rod. Luck was on our side. A passing cyclist stopped to check that I was okay and we recognised each other’s accents! He was a Fijian, who had gone to Hamilton Boys’ High and married a Hamilton girl. Well, I lay claim to being a Hamilton girl, too, having been born there, and we were invited to lunch - his home was a few km further along but we were able to stay at his speed and follow him home. He, wife Stephanie, and 3 year old Noah had just returned from a month away in the southern hemisphere so were pretty jet-lagged and it was extra-kind of them to take us in. Albert plays rugby in France and this is their sixth year there. His second year with La Rochelle. After 3 years in Paris they are really glad to have a house ‘in the country’, with a big lawn and plenty of room for barbecues and other gatherings. Room, too, for visitors, and we accepted their invitation to stay the night. They were hospitable, friendly and pleased to see kiwis. Albert’s younger cousin is in a training squad in La Rochelle, too, so watch for the rise of a new Fijian Rugbyman! Our thanks to the Vulivuli family for a wonderful stay.
The following day we got as far as Marans, where we had been heading the day before and it was a few km out of there that we were crossing a small bridge and noticed that the guy in the black and white jersey also had New Zealand written along the sleeve! Hence followed a long chat about many things. They are semi-retired, from Mount Maunganui and each year the guy has a job for three months or so in the UK, from where they go cycling. They were on the same pathway as us going the other direction. And neither of us had met NZers on the cycling trail! Great to meet people like that and share stories!
By Marans you are well into the Vendée and cycling really brings you face to face with the huge drainage systems of the Vendée marshes, to enable crops to be grown inland, and to form salt pans closer to the sea. The whole area is a tight grid of waterways. It was the monks of medieval times, from at least six abbeys, who first undertook the colossal task, including current-driven 'gates to the sea' which allowed the marshes to drain excess fresh water out at low tide (by opening), and kept out salt water at high tide (by closing). Centuries later Dutch experts were brought in. The polders (drained marshes with drainage canals criss-crossing them) in the Vendée are said to be every bit as good as those in Holland and are very fertile. Various grains, sunflowers and animals thrive there. Because we are cycling we spent a long time going in and out of various marshes - drained and fertile, or wet and used for raising mussels, and it takes days just to ride past them and through them on the way up the coast. What a huge job it must have been for those that undertook the work in the various century! And the upkeep is serious and on-going, though now you can see mechanical diggers working at this task.
By Marans you are well into the Vendée and cycling really brings you face to face with the huge drainage systems of the Vendée marshes, to enable crops to be grown inland, and to form salt pans closer to the sea. The whole area is a tight grid of waterways. It was the monks of medieval times, from at least six abbeys, who first undertook the colossal task, including current-driven 'gates to the sea' which allowed the marshes to drain excess fresh water out at low tide (by opening), and kept out salt water at high tide (by closing). Centuries later Dutch experts were brought in. The polders (drained marshes with drainage canals criss-crossing them) in the Vendée are said to be every bit as good as those in Holland and are very fertile. Various grains, sunflowers and animals thrive there. Because we are cycling we spent a long time going in and out of various marshes - drained and fertile, or wet and used for raising mussels, and it takes days just to ride past them and through them on the way up the coast. What a huge job it must have been for those that undertook the work in the various century! And the upkeep is serious and on-going, though now you can see mechanical diggers working at this task.
Apart from drained or wet marshes and the plants and wildlife that accompany these areas, (especially the birds), there are seaside towns, which started flourishing in the 19th century as seaside resorts, where harassed city-dwellers could come for their holidays. It was the beginning of tourism to this part of the country, which was not 'on the way to' anywhere.
Nowadays, all the resorts we passed through are well-known names here, though their nature has changed since the 1820s. La Tranche-sur-Mer, Jard-sur-Mer (where Georges Clémenceau had a beach house and garden, the latter helped by Monet in its design), Les Sables d’Olonne, St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, St-Jean-de-Monts… The beaches are fine golden sand, the cycle paths are through lovely forests and sand dunes (with downs as well as ups), or along/beside a sea-wall or stopbank or the edge of the sea shore, rocky or not, often with tides that go out leaving boats high and dry for large parts of the day. The ports are of course tidal as well, often with both a high-tide and low-tide jetty and the boats seem to be on the muddy bottom for a large part of the day in some ports. The larger towns have a sea-facing boulevard with nose-to-tail apartments, 5-6 stories, for kilometres. And lots of restaurants, also right along the sea-front, catering to the crowds which will appear there ‘in season’ (mainly July and August). There is often/usually a sailing school (Ecole de voile) on the beach and sometimes surf schools.
Nowadays, all the resorts we passed through are well-known names here, though their nature has changed since the 1820s. La Tranche-sur-Mer, Jard-sur-Mer (where Georges Clémenceau had a beach house and garden, the latter helped by Monet in its design), Les Sables d’Olonne, St Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, St-Jean-de-Monts… The beaches are fine golden sand, the cycle paths are through lovely forests and sand dunes (with downs as well as ups), or along/beside a sea-wall or stopbank or the edge of the sea shore, rocky or not, often with tides that go out leaving boats high and dry for large parts of the day. The ports are of course tidal as well, often with both a high-tide and low-tide jetty and the boats seem to be on the muddy bottom for a large part of the day in some ports. The larger towns have a sea-facing boulevard with nose-to-tail apartments, 5-6 stories, for kilometres. And lots of restaurants, also right along the sea-front, catering to the crowds which will appear there ‘in season’ (mainly July and August). There is often/usually a sailing school (Ecole de voile) on the beach and sometimes surf schools.
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| Welcome snack bar where two people older than us made delicious savoury crêpes |
Camping grounds along this coast are everywhere - often back-to-back - and often huge. One of the camps we stayed at had over 500 sites. Many, if not most, of these sites are occupied by ‘mobilhomes’, upmarket cabins which get a little more upmarket every year, rented by the week, or owned privately on the rented campsite. Not so many people these days pitching a tent, bringing a caravan or parking a camper van.
With all these mobilhomes go, perhaps, an Aquapark (or just a swimming pool), an entertainment area, maybe some yoga classes, some special programmes for children of various ages, a proper restaurant, a bouncy castle, kids' play area, a grocery shop, snack bar, TV room. Not all are this comprehensive but it has usually been hard to find, along this coast, a simple camping ground where we are not paying for a whole lot of things we don’t need or want. We do need access to power points to charge our phones et al, but often the reception area will offer to do this, and if not there are always power points in the ‘sanitaires’ (ablution block). Wifi is often ‘available and free’ - so long as you are within about three metres of the reception area. The wifi can also be fairly unreliable, slow and prone to cutting out. We have often used the 3G facility on our phone, rather than the wifi provided, but that is often slow to load as well. There are always lots of dogs at the camping grounds, all well-behaved, on leads, taken for walks frequently. It just works. Nice for us to be able to give a pat or two and have a chat with owners.
A really interesting area, this coast. Wildlife and nature, man-made drainage systems, stop banks and sea-walls, mudflats and oysters, mussels, salt, grain, sunflowers, vines, dunes, forests, fishing ports, leisure-boat ports, resorts for holiday-makers, such is the Vendée coast, Le Littoral.
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| Mobilhome we rented during a downpour/storm |
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| Aquapark |
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| Part of the cycleway... |
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| Also part of the cycleway... |
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