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 be here. In season, we really would not want to be here and the many cycle tracks would be rammed. Mercifully, this is off-season.
Yesterday, we cycled to La Tremblade and found a very pleasant seafood eatery which included the best whelks I’ve ever tasted accompanied, amongst many other delicacies, by langoustines that were perfectly cooked – so often not the case.
As far as I was concerned, that was it; having had my plateau de fruits de mer, I could’ve moved on. Francine, however, was keen to revisit the Phare de la Coubre, a lighthouse with 300 steps up to the light platform itself. Why not? We’d first visited it many more years ago than we can remember or, indeed, calculate. That trip predated any modern technical stuff like blogging, so looking it up is not an option. Suffice to say that we were much younger and fitter then and the 300 steps would’ve been less daunting.
Having no alternative agenda, we’d have another bike ride. Off we pedalled and found a route along a track through some woodland. Before reaching the lighthouse Francine yelled “stop”. She’d spotted some orchids, which turned out to be red Helleborines, beside the track. In common with many common names for wild flowers, the description of “red” really is a misnomer. Nonetheless, they were delightful.
Once at the lighthouse, Francine coughed up her admission fee and clambered up to the observation point. There’s an etiquette involved on the spiral staircase – those going up give way to those descending, pulling in to a handy window recess to let them pass. There’s a man to brief you an how to do it.
There is apparently another quite local lighthouse, Phare de Cordouan, pipping this one with 301 steps so Francine felt a bit cheated.
The sky had begun the day overcast and never cleared, remaining grey all day. Indeed, on our way back to Frodo via La Palmyre, just to ring the changes, a few drops of rain fell but happily it came to nothing.
Tomorrow the forecast isn’t any better.
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