Saturday 10 August 2013

Heading North...

Once again its been to long since this has been updated, although i did manage to get all the photos finished for the last post the other day. Took me 2 hours of getting strange looks from the staff in a KFC near La Rochelle. A wee fact for you though, KFC wi-fi is definitely quicker than McDonalds, atleast in France anyway. Although i'm starting to get worried about how much time i'm spending in various fast food chains...



Anyway, with over a week since our last post, where have we been? What have we been up to? My uncle has a place near a town called Lezay which is about an hour from La Rochelle, so a week ago today we checked in there. My dad joined us as well, riding down from Calais on his Honda Africa Twin. With them living near Manchester at home and with us far down South, it was good to spend the 4 nights there, relaxing and catching up. As well as doing some weed killing (Has it killed them off yet?), heading into Poitiers, wandering around a lake, doing some work on the car, watching the last 3 Harry Potter films and swimming in there luxury pool...
A big thank-you to Layne and Fran, as well as Sam, Hannah and Lucy, for having us for the 4 nights that we stayed with you and thanks for your generous hospitality.

The town hall in Poitiers...


Lucy and Layne on some giant lego block type things...


Lucy, drive La Voiture!

Me and the Hanster...


 Dad all packed up ready for the 'Short way home..' (See what i did there...?)


I even let Han have a drive of Timster!


After 4 nights there though it was time that we were moving on, and following recommendations, we decided to head west to the coast. The satnav was set for Palais Sur Mer, which, although kinda contradicting our original plans, had us heading south again. The town was nice, and we spent a couple of hours there wandering around the town and then through the country park. Perhaps a wee too touristy for us though, everywhere we went we could hear British voices! On the way out we passed through Royan, a nice seaside resort with some great beaches.

I got a bit excited when we found a MINI garage en route...

This was cool, a train level-crossing, except there were no lights, or warnings, you had to see for yourself if a train was hurtling towards you at 80 mph!


We found a great and cheap campsite in the middle of nowhere, run by an English couple, Steve and Lindsey. Upon arrival we were only the second pitch being used, why the site isn't busier than it is i don't know. Great site, good hosts and good facilities along with very fair prices. Only an hour from La Rochelle and 20 minutes from Saintes, if your heading to the area i can definitely recommend Vacances St Jacques.



We were there two nights, and on the in between day we were up early as we planned to do both Saintes and La Rochelle in the same day. First stop was the catholic church and Roman Amphitheater in Saintes. The church was stunning, with intricately carved stone features along with amazing stained glass windows. But i'll let the pictures do the talking for this instead of overusing adjectives...!

Founds this outside...

Very erm, pink, Han liked it!








We then took a walk down to the Amphitheater, very cool to see, and almost seemed a little out of place in this quite traditionally French town. Although i'm pretty sure the remaining Roman influences were here a long time before!




I liked Saintes, it wasn't overly busy, had lots of cool little shops laid out along stone streets, with the town itself placed next to a river. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the place, looking in the shops, me looking like a proper tourist taking far too many photos...




 More Roman influences...







After Saintes we headed into La Rochelle, about an hours drive away, we followed signs for the Aquarium, as well, i like aquariums and the parking next to it is cheap. We hadn't planned to go inside but the aquarium was massive and by convincing the lady that we were students, it worked out pretty good value. Inside was amazing, with fish from every region on the planet, freshwater and seawater, from the fishing at La Rochelle to the Amazon river. A few hours later we emerged, having had our moneys worth and with me confirming that doing my PADI license definitely needs to be added to the list. It's a long list...

Found these outside the aquarium, i had to hold Han back!


La Rochelle Aquarium, well worth a visit!


Apparently they're partners...


Grumpy fish:

Eels...


Mmmm, Lobster...


Scary looking monster Eel things...

Very cool jellyfish...



 Dory and Nemo...

Sawfish, which is actually a shark...


Jaws...

Mudfish, they can live out of water for up to 5 minutes at a time, plus i thought they looked cool...



We then headed into La Rochelle itself, passed the marina and then into the town. Now i'm about to make a bold statement here, but along with Chamonix, i'd say that these 2 could well be my favourite places in France. Well so far anyway... All seemed very chilled, with street acts that reminded me a bit of Covent Garden, and with seafood that reminded me that we were still (thankfully?) a long way from London.











These were very cool!









Yesterday we packed up, and began heading north again, with vague sights set for Le Mans, we've ended up at a town called Fresnay-sur-Sarthe. Another good campsite, although we're leaving here today, with plans to stop at the market in town before heading further north to the Normandy coastline.

Updates sooner rather than later!

Peace, Joe.

P.S. I've changed the settings on the comments meaning that anyone can now leave one, so if your reading this, comment away!