Blogs from Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe - page 3

Reputation calls on all within earshot of an utterance of that word ‘Cognac’ to genuflect or at least bow. If I were to offer cognac as an after dinner slurp, then I might be bunging it on a bit, or maybe there is a heavy question coming. After all, I have never tasted the stuff. Well not before now. We might know the big names in cognac like Hennessy and Remy Martin from watching the likes of Roger Moore and Sean Connery. A few days back, we pulled up in the town of Cognac, expecting something like the ambience of Epernay in the Champagne country. Cognac did present a prominence, albeit muted. There was a feeling of ‘having arrived’ when we drove into the town. But it all fell a bit flat. Epernay has stately homes, ... read more

Jour 1: Lundi 20 juin 2016 On s'est tous retrouvé pour un petit déjeuner à la SRR sur le port des Minimes de La Rochelle, en attendant que tout le monde arrive. J'ai appris que j'allais naviguer et vivre quelques jours sur le Grand Surprise, un super voilier de régate. Ensuite nous avons préparé les bateaux, c'est-à-dire que nous avons installé les couchettes et les matelas pour que nous puissions dormir dedans. On a aussi rangé toutes nos affaires dans les coffres et dans les couchettes à l'arrière du bateau pour éviter qu'elles ne se baladent trop lors de la navigation. Après le déjeuner nous sommes enfin partis en direction de Saint-Martin (Île-de-Ré). Il ne faisait pas très beau et un peu froid, mais comme il y avait pas mal de vent c'était quand même super-cool, ... read more

Decided to visit the Marais d'Yves as we had seen quite a few interesting birds of prey on our drive to the campsite. Followed the road along the coast south as best we could but not easy as they are building sea defences so part of the road was diverted. No obvious road to take and the only signs we saw to the Reseve were along the main road and as usual when we are on the scooter we try to use the nice quiet back roads. The nice quiet back road we chose took us in completely the wrong direction and well away from the coast line. We backtracked and found ourselves on a dual carriageway but only 3km from an aire which promised to take us to the Reserve. I don't know what it ... read more

De Saintes, nous prenons la route vers Poitiers... Marie-Hélène nous conseille de nous arrêter à Aulnay de Saintonge ainsi qu'à Melle. Nous envisageons de nous arrêter pour la nuit au camping de Lusignan, mais nous n'y resterons pas car il n'y a pas un chat de un et de deux il est tôt et il ne fait pas trop beau, donc pourquoi ne pas avancer un peu plus... Patrie des Seigneurs de Lusignan, rois de Chypre, de Jérusalem et d'Arménie. Berceau de la Fée Mélusine, Lusignan se dresse sur un promontoire rocheux dominant la vallée de la Vonne. Le petit village de Sainte Catherine de Fierbois nous offre aussi un petit arrêt sympa... Wikipedia nous en parle : La légende raconte que Charles Martel, en 732, après avoir remporté la bataille de Poitiers, aurait exterminé les ... read more

The warm sun looked like it was going to desert us today for although there were patches of blue sky the general overcast gave the impression that it was back to that mode for the day. Here we had been thinking that a change to short sleeve shirts and shorts might have been on but today is certainly a day for rugging up again. Never mind, as long as it doesn’t rain. We have been sleeping in really well and this morning was no different waking when the time was nearly 7am. So it was a relaxed breakfast as we planned our day trip to the Ile de Re, a long strip of an island separated by a 1.8km long bridge from the mainland. It is about 35km by road from the La Rochelle end of ... read more