Wednesday's Wandering

With the main roads clear and the secondary roads OK to use with care, we decided on a day trip to Ile D'Oleron and Rochefort. Now this would be a rather big itinerary in spring or summer but on a freezing cold day in February it was more than possible. Our first target was to do a first time visit to the Phare de Chassiron that is at the far end of the island.
The whole island was eerily quiet and then we realised that we had arrived during the two hours of lunch time, that is clearly still observed, at least during the off-peak winter season.
The extent that Ile D'Oleron is a holiday place becomes very obvious on a winter visit by the number of businesses that are "closed until April", even most of the garages selling petrol have closed up.

Once at the Phare we parked up and donned every item of clothing we had with us set of for a cliff top walk. Most of the photos in the collage are from the point. Note the condition of the trees in the bottom left and you get some idea of the wind. The walk did not last long and was dominated by a discussion on the merits of thermal underwear. Oh for the days of summer when we complain about it being to hot!
We left the Phare and drove down to Le Chateau D'Oleron in search of a warming coffee but everywhere was closed and we found ourselves in the the square in Rochefort before settling into a cafe for cafe.
The photo in the bottom right is the Ecofrais Supermarche in Marsilly that has become our second home as we have bought just about everything we wanted there. Looking at the receipts we have made a significant impact on the local economy!