Thursday 24 March

After a very cold night the sun once again quickly warmed things up, although it's a little hazy and rain is forecast for later tonight. So for the first time since mid-January, socks and jeans were the order of the day for Terry! As we're planning to go into the town, after breakfast got everything packed away ready to depart then caught the free bus from the park and ride, leaving Jamie to guard the van. 

Five minutes later we were dropped close to the centre of this quite compact town. La Rochelle is a typical old port, lots of narrow streets and old buildings including an unusual town hall which unfortunately suffered a serious fire in 2013 and is now being extensively repaired and renovated. An exhibition showed the progress but that's about all we could see. Anyway, a selection of photos.

Town Hall - about all we could see of it

An interesting corner tower

Justice Building

Le Grande Horlage (The Big Clock)

Claimed to be the first lighthouse in the world

We bought a sandwich lunch and sat overlooking the old harbour, watching the tide come in before returning to the van on the free bus. A quick drink, a visit to the service point and we were away. It seems your stay is limited to 24 hours here, but that is enough to “see the sights” and we thought well worth it.

Le Vieux Porte

Quite close by and just off the coast is the Ile de Re, a long thin popular holiday island that is reached by a long toll bridge. Almost straight away we came across a small aire which had a few places left (although the price has doubled according to our book!) and overlooked a big sandy beach, which was soon explored by a very energetic dog! Whilst setting up we had a short chat with a Brit couple who were 8 days into their first motorhome trip – which they intended to last 5/6 months! Had a few questions, which we were of course happy to help with, but put them on to the MotorhomeFun forum.

As predicted the weather started to close in although the rain held off for the rest of the day. But we've parked under a tree so no radio or TV tonight.