After our fantastic week with friends in Les Ulmes we continued our journey; first by car to Ile de Re can't make the accents work in Blogger...), then southwards by bicycle again. We've now arrived at the Ile d'Oleron and will stay here for 1 day of island exploration. Afterwards, we'll have a few more days of cycling before we stop at another destination, again with a few friends, invited at their house near Angouleme. Meanwhile, we are thoroughly enjoying France and its beautiful cycling routes.
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| The house we called "home" for a week, at Les Ulmes. |
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| Take a good look and let me know what's wrong with this; have you ever seen a swimming pool that's not horizontal??? |
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| The good life with good friends |
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| I promised sunflowers! |
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| And another beautiful flower; who knows this one? |
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| From Les Ulmes we went to Ile de Re, by car, with the bicycles on the bike rack. The lower house on the left is our next "home", for 3 days this time. |
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| Just an Ile de Re view |
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| Ile de Re is a superb cycling island, with lots of cycling routes (and lots of cyclists too, even though it seems tourism is way below normal levels). What's better than a picnic at the coast, with a fresh baguette and good french cheese? |
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| Ile de Re, very charming and photogenic, with quiet villages that have all more or less uniform white houses with grey to green shutters on the windows |
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| The island has 2 main local products: salt (on this picture) and oysters (sorry, we've eaten them, no picture) |
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| After 3 beautiful days on the very relaxing island, time to go tour cycling again - after 9 days of short and baggage free riding. |
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| Coffee breaks in France can also be... like this! Totally absolutely nothing wrong with a nice espresso on a perfect terrace overlooking the yacht harbour of a charming town |
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| By the time we reached La Rochelle, back on the mainland, it was lunch time. We didn't expect much of La Rochelle, but in fact it was a very interesting and attractive city with a perfect location for a picnic break. |
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| From La Rochelle we started to follow the Eurovelo 1 route; the route 4 didn't convince us that much, but this Eurovelo 1 is really great for cycling and brought us to many beautiful and cycling-friendly places. It's not the shortest way, but we have the time and it's very much worth the extra distance. |
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| Once again... A coffee break can be quite different in France, with again an excellent espresso at a pleasant beach bar |
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| We found a remote, rural and super friendly campsite after a wonderful day of cycling - what a great find this was! |
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| Giant camp spots in a great environment; you should have heard the bird concert in the early morning! |
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| A very big difference between high and low tide in this region, which gives you... endless beaches at low tide! |
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| Idyllic spots along very quiet and dedicated cycling routes |
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| We rode along the Charentes river for a long time, and crossed it over a bicycle-only bridge |
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| It's another old train line that has been converted into a "voie verte" or green way - for cycling. |
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| The Charente |
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| Another perfect coffee spot, this time "home made" (with a near empty gas canister, we need an urgent refill!); this was the site of a maritime museum, and you can see a historic frigate in the back |
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| Me, on the way to Ile d'Oleron |
After the next stop, we'll have to decide which way to continue. Our initial intention was to continue to Spain and then into Portugal, but with the recent new Covid-19 outbreaks and the negative travel advice, we'll probably go for a plan B. Stay tuned for updates on this!