Ile D'Oleron

Until yesterday, and despite all the years we have visited this area before we bought the house, we had never been to Ile D' Oleron and now that we have we will certainly visit again.
It was after 10.00am when we set off, a bit later than we'd intended as we thought that a sunny Sunday, in peak holiday season, could make things a bit busy to get across the bridge to the Ile.
And we were right, the trip from Marsilly to St Agnant (Aerodrome de Rochefort) took 35 minutes and then it took us another 35 minutes to get across the bridge. We had noted the journey time to St Agnant as the Aerdrome there is supposed to be redeveloped as the new La Rochelle Airport and Laleu that is only ten minutes from Nantilly to be demoted or even closed. Some say 2012, some say 2015, but Sheila's new friend from the flight over says 2020 so who knows.

Once on the island we pulled off the main road and headed for Le Chateau - the first place on the island - a town called Le Chateau and not a castle, and what a good spot. A busy harbour area and adjacent shops and bars that in part have taken over fishermen's huts and so blend pretty in well. One such spot provided us with a very welcome cup of coffee, although it was too late for le petit dejuener it was far to early for lunch.

We took the back / coast roads to move on to Boyardville and as we guessed it provided great views into the bay of Fort Boyard - one of the many defence built in this area in the 17th, 18th and early 19th century to defend the miliatary shipyards and arsenal at Rochefort. There was a citadel in Le Chateau that dated back to the 1630 that was still in use up to mid 1945 when 90% of it was reduced to rubble in a 40 minute allied air bombardment as part of the liberation of France.

The island is a very popular family holiday destination and Boyardville was certainly buzzing with holiday makers enjoying the quayside cafe's and ice cream shops as well as the boat trips and jet ski hire. Still too early for luch we settled on an ice cream each - I am making mango and passion fruit as my staple ice cream choice.

We headed out of the town and into the coastal forest and with the help of the guide book found some parking at the end of a long narrow road that gave access over the dunes to the beach and there we stayed for the rest of the afternoon. Comfortable in our flashy Zandra Rhodes designed camping-armchairs we whiled away the time by reading and people watching and the tide rolled out and then came back in.

It was gone 5.00pm when we returned ot the car and made our way back to Nantilly. It took us about 45 minutes to unwind ourselves back down the island to the bridge but once there the return journey was much quicker.

The evening cooled off quite a lot be we still managed to barbeque and dine al fresco.
All in all a lovely Sunday. Here on Monday morning we are waiting for two cubic metres of firewood to be delivered and then will have the task of shifting it from the road to the back of the garage. This is planning ahead as we don't expect to use that wood until the winter of 2011/12.
A bientot