Les Mathes really is not our natural habitat. The area is packed with fun-fair establishments and campsites with water slides to attract Satan’s Little Disciples. Were it not for the excellent oyster fishery around La Tremblade, we probably would not…

Yesterday was getting a bit long – no, still 24hrs – so I’m taking a leaf out of the cricketing manual and resuming after tea break. There are quite a few privet hedges on site in full flower and Frodo’s…

We had spent our final evening in Arçais over a very convivial BBQ with our friend. Convivial it may have been but it also felt a little dangerous since one of the tripod legs of the BBQ was prone to…

There is a decent proper boucherie in Damvix – there’s really very little but a basic co-op in Arçais so we decided to take a longer route along the side of the Sèvre Niortaise river into Damvix for some culinary…

We’ve been languishing in Arçais for a few days catching up with our friend that we last saw at a remembrance gathering for her husband last year. We’ve had a good time catching up. I’ve also had to catch up…

Last year at about this time we were at Arçais for our friend’s celebration of life, a friend who had sadly passed away from Covid early in 2024. Now being on the west coast of France in the vicinity, it…

Our next planned hop was a short one, a journey of some 40kms were we to go straight there. Of course, we didn’t. We would be passing the southern edge of the marais that had drawn our attention on the…

… wind and more wind, and salt. We’d spent a pleasant enough Friday night at Camping Mon Calme and Saturday dawned bright. Saturday in Piriac-sur-mer is also market day so guess where we were going? We walked the 1km out…

We did our housekeeping on Frodo, filling up the fresh water etc. and prepared to head for La Turballe, which is in the southern extreme of Brittany, a spit west of St. Nazaire. Our route would take us tantalizingly close…

… rain, rain and more rain. The inclement weather had been forecast for 21st. We had planned to drive to St. Aubin du Cormier, a journey just shy of 300kms, so why did it feel so long? It took us…