Michael and Ann began their return journey to Yorkshire on Tuesday but not before Ann helped with a bit of translating. On Sunday we relaised that we had no hot water. It was hard to pin down when the immersion heater actually stopped working becasue it has been so hot that we have only been having tepid showers and the like, so the store of hot water would had supplied our needs for quite a while. Oue man Michael Miller got on the job on Monday and aranged for a local plumber to call first thing on Tuesday and this is how we made the acquaintance of Ousmane Sy.
With Ann's lingisut skils we quickly established that a new hott wateer tank was needed and by 1pm the work was done and we were €600 poorer!

Today we tootled into La Rochelle with the first stop a visit ot the WW2 submarine base that "someone" had read was now open to the public. Well it isn't! What there is in the centre ville is a Musse de le Bunket that looked very dodgy (shop mannkins dressed in uniforms) that we demured at the idea of paying €7 each to visit.
After the disappointment of Le Bunker we drove into LaR itself and parked near the casino at the north end and wandered along to the Old Port. All in all we spent a very enjoyable three hours potering about and having lunch at the very pleasant Bistro Jules - the first cousin cafe of La Cuisine de Jules and just a stones throw from the Central Market and therfore very close to its relative.

Our mission for the rest of the day is to rest, relax and read.

Thursday featured a mini adventure on our bicycles. From Nantill to the golf course where we assessed that the wind was too strong to make playing golf an enjoyable expereince. So from the golf course we headed to the cliff tops and cycled south as far at Lauziers. All along the way the views of the bay and hinterland were splendid and perched up on our bikes we felt one with nature and with the dozens of other people aloso wlaking and cycling along the route.

From Lauziers we headed back via Nieul-sur-Mer where we had a pit-stop at Le Batleur and thence home. The round trip is about 15km and is probably the longest (distance) cycle we've done. It has encouraged us to do more.

Wednesday was a quiet day at home, a few chores but not much else. Michael Miller and his wife Ann Marie came in the late afternoon so we baked a local speciality a plum tart to offer them. It was a big hit, especially when served with a glass of local Rose from Ile de Re. We are going to have the exterior woodwork repainted, that is to say have the windows and doors varnished, the shutters and garage door painted. Michael's visit was to discuss the quotatio he had a local painter prepare. We are going ahead so now we need to chose the clour for the shutters. Any suggestions?