Marsilly February 2016

Saturday 13th February

We landed, twice in fact, into La Rochelle airport on Saturday. When I say twice what I mean is that it was incredibly windy, we knew this as we took off from Stansted – the pilot told us. But you never know what that actually means... There was quite a bit of bouncing around as we flew over the town and then as we came down the plane was moving from side to side and then, thump, up again probably just a few inches and thump again. This time when I looked out of the window to the right I saw the sky and to the left I saw the ground – not the normal views.

However all was well and we skidded to a halt, disembarked and headed for the terminal to a quelle surprise, a new building. Sadness all-round the old shed is going and a new two story building will replace it. The other interesting development is that the car rental office is no longer next door to the terminal building but practically on the other side of La Rochelle. OK I jest but it is now situated on the other side of the airport as they clearly are preparing for expansion that will turn La Rochelle into a competitor of Charles De Gaulle airport.

It’s funny how these things happen; there are 6 companies from whom travelers can hire cars at La Rochelle and it turned out that on our flight there were 11 groups who had hire cars booked. 1 group hired from Avis and 10 from Hertz resulting in a queue that snaked out the door of the little office. Thankfully yer man is currently on a speed walking regime and he managed to race off and get second in line so that we made it to Marsilly before midnight.

Waiting for us at the house was Monsieur Des Brennan with a warm welcome. I had not thought about this but the last four times we have arrived at the house someone else is there before us and it feels lived in. A stroll to the supermarket to but provisions for Saturday night’s meal was required and we stayed put catching up on news etc.

Sunday 14^th February 2016

Des does not have a car here and so his trips to La Rochelle and the surrounding areas are determined by either the bus routes or how far he can cycle. So we thought a trip down to Chatelaillon-Plage and a walk along the front was in order pointing out highlights along the way. A rain storm put paid to our walk and so onto Fouras and a walk around the town before taking a comfort break at Vivaldi and treating ourselves to coffee gourmand before returning to Nantilly

After a disco nap we were all ready for a trip to Le Bateleur however it turned out that the two previous evenings had taken its toll on the residents of Neuil-Sur-Mer and only 20 of us turned up to hear Manu play the piano and sing songs of M. Serge Lama. Manu decided to then turn the evening into a friends night, meaning you name the song and I’ll play it. That was until he turned the tables on us, when he named the song – New York, New York and got Des to sing it. Only one day in the place and already he is commanding the stage.
We headed home early enough so that we could then sit for hours and muse about Motown music, The Beatles all over glasses of Laphroaig courtesy of Monsieur and Madame Lee from August.

Monday 15^th February 2016

Today Des had a lesson with Prof. Agnes as he works on improving his French and so as he headed off to caught the 12.01 bus in Place de Verdun Peter and I took a road trip around northern Charente Martime and taking the time to lunch with Michael and Anne Marie.

A trip to the supermarket with a pit stop at the Tabac was in order before coming back to base early for a bite to eat and an early night. Much to the relief of the little folk of the house. Two nights in a row is now too much for us these days.