Blogs from Châtelaillon, Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe

We've moved further south and back to the mainland. Chose a good day to drive as raining in the morning but cleared up and sun came out once we had arrived at our campsite. Not a terribly interesting drive, very flat in the Vendee and we didn't go through any pretty villages. Just the nature of the countryside in this part of France. All the area along the coast above La Rochelle is a string of seaside towns just waiting to be filled with thousands of summer visitors. The campsites are pretty well wall to wall for miles. We headed for La Rochelle and accidentally almost went through as the turn towards Rochefort was badly signposted. Bob managed to find a roundabout to turn round just as I was attacking the food cupboard which had come ... read more

Saturday Sept 1st Its has been a beautiful warm day here with a slight on shore breeze, just to stop the overheating, Went to the beach this morning, got there just after high tide, about 10.30ish. There was maybe 100 people all standing there staring out to sea and all wearing wellies. Didn’t know what kind of cult we had stumbled upon, but within 15 min all was made clear. The sea receeded rapidly and in 15 min had started to expose mussel and oyster beds just off shore. Half an hour later the beach must have been 1 km wide and the enormous harvest was there to be seen. Dozens of tractors full of pickers armed with buckets, mini picks and sharpe knives headed out to work. French locals and foreign tourists alike followed with ... read more