Wednesday 19th June 2019:
Pointe Saint Gildas. Being the most westerly point on the mainland hereabouts it seemed like the perfect place to start our trip down the coast. Slight problem, on arriving we realised we had been hear at least 2 times in the past. The largest single lose of life in WW2 took place here when German bomber sunk the Lancastrian evacuating Allied troops during the retreat from Europe. Ironically just over the water you can see Saint-Nazaire what here the RN and supporting Army units made the first major raid on Nazi occupied territory and started the realisation that the Germans may not have won the war after all!
We then headed south to Pornic, the first time we came to France we stopped near here and had two massive steaks that our disposable barbecues failed to cook fully, a good job we like it rare!
After a wander around town we headed back getting some decent steaks and on return tried some Lillet in the campsite bar! Very nice with tonic and ice and a slice!
Thursday 20th June 2019:
A slow start to the day due to alcohol consumption the previous evening and needing to get some wash9ing done.
Today’s destination the Ile Noirmountier. We headed off aiming for the 3.8km tidal causeway to the island, until recently the only way across.
We crossed over with no trouble but the tide times were suggesting we may have to take the bridge back. On the way over you couldn’t help marvel at the number of cocklers that were out on the flats after a free dinner of shell fish!
Absolutely gorgeous little place full of picture book villages of single storey white washed houses with orange pan tilled roofs.
We needed to stop for a wee and found a huge supermarché and being as it had a bistro we decided to lunch there. A lovely lunch of salad with mini toast and goats cheese, superb ham and gesiers (duck gizzard) to you set us up for the afternoon.
The downside of the place it was a complete tourist trap. No matter what we tried we couldn’t get anywhere near the sea to let the dogs out for a run and a swim so started to head back.
According to the tide times the causeway should now be closing but we though we could take the dogs for a swim: wrong! We pulled up behind what is obviously professional cocklers who were loading up their van and setting off back to the mainland, or ‘Le Continent’, so working on the premise that a professional tends to know better than an amateur we followed them onto to the causeway only to find hundreds of cars and ‘peche au pieds’ still out on the mud flats. We arrived back in plenty of time and parked at the landward end of the causeway to take the dogs for a run long the dyke and drainage ditch.
We then noticed that now the water really was encroaching on the causeway and that the fishers were making a steady but hasty retreat for higher ground.
Sitting watching we looked on in amazement as people continued to cross in cars, vans, bicycles and on foot, only as we watched the water rising, we saw people turning around cars and heading back to their end of the causeway, away from the incoming tide rapidly submerging the causeway until the last fool hardy or brave fool who maybe knew the conditions perfectly shot across in a flurry of spray and just made it across. I seriously wouldn’t consider buying that car second hand, it’ll be full of rust!
On the way back we bought a bottle of Touspinette, just need a Lillet to make the full set of local drinks we’ve never heard of before!
Getting back to the campsite we found that this particular evening the local hunting horn band had taken over from the rock band that has been rehearsing during every day we’ve been here.
Friday 21st June 2019:
Having read some reviews to the likes of Saint-Jean-de-Mont is a typical French seaside resort of the modern tradition, it was an obvious choice to have a look-see. Rewrite those reviews to our idea
of holiday hell on earth. OK there was a long sandy beach, with a huge viewing wheel to see over town and see but there was also a see front of massive multi-story hotels fronted with amusment arcades, bars, discos and restaurants offering everything from an English Pub to French high cuisine.
Although the place was almost deserted as it is still well out of season over here it really wasn’t our cup of tea. The thought of being in that place in high season fills us with dread and worst of all you can’t take dogs on the beaches.
Where the beach front ends and nature begins we found a dunned forested area that had a walkway to a beach where the dogs could go and where on the way there were plenty of dead things (courtesy of the buzzards that were overflying the grass slopes) for the dogs to have a good sniff at.
Onto the beach and the dogs had a good run heading straight for the water, we followed and to our amazement we found thousands upon thousands of tiny hermit crabs in tiny spiral shells rolling around in the shallows!
We push on south down the coast looking for a spot to picnic and ended up overlooking the harbour at Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, not the prettiest place in the world but acceptable.
Returning to the campsite we found a steady stream of 2CVs and their enthusiasts rolling into the campsite. They did say it could be rowdy, they weren’t kidding!
(PS. Both feeling a little iffy, maybe the mussels in the supermarket shellfish tapas selection weren’t such a good idea).
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