The weather was due to get worse for the weekend with 40 mph winds predicted. Although not a big deal, this this can make things a bit ‘rocky’ if Beatrix is facing the wrong way, so we decided to move away from the Channel and Atlantic. On the way our first stop was the slightly more protected bay of Mont Saint Michel which was a couple of hours down the coast.
It was evident on the road in that it is a pretty major tourist spot, but we found a relatively quiet place to stay in the Camping Car dedicated carpark. I’m pleased it wasn’t full as it’s not always easy for us to fit into standard spaces and here we ended up parking across two. Thankfully, as this is France, no-one is particularly bothered.
The carparks (there’s at least 8 of them) here are absolutely enormous but luckily were not too busy at this time of year. They’re a great place to stop as its possible to walk, or take the free shuttle bus if you’d rather, out to the island. We weren’t sure if Merlin would be allowed all over the island, so we left her in charge of the motorhome and headed off for the walk.
Mont Saint Michel hasn’t really been an island for some time I learnt. The striking new curved bridge is part of a lot of development over the last 20 years to remove some of the silt and encourage tidal flows again around the island.
Once there, it would be fair to say that the island and buildings are amazing. I read somewhere that Disney had based one of its fairy-tale castles on Mont Saint Michel and it really has that feel to it. Alas, apart from the Abbey at the top the remainder of the island is given over to restaurants and tat shops for the tourists. Despite it being a quiet day, the island still buzzing and felt pretty full…… I can’t imagine what it would be like in high summer.
The next day we were woken early with a bike race commentator booming out dance music across the visitors’ centre, so it was time to hit the road, heading south. The weather forecast for La Rochelle and Il de Re was sunny and 23c for the next week and we’re following the sun on this trip so….
On the way, our first stop was Josselin which is a classically French looking little town with a stunning castle. The buildings all have shutters, the streets are cobbled and the cafes and bar had tables and people spilling out across the square. It was so peaceful and quiet that we had a really great stopover.
Next day we were heading for Carnac and the standing stones there. There are apparently some 3000 standing stones in Carnac that date from 5000-3000 years BC so whilst they may not have the balanced grandeur of Stonehenge, they more than make up for it in their numbers. This is Astrix and Obelix country as I remembered from the comic books of my youth but also very close to where my friend Tim spent a year converting an old barn.
We had a Sunday afternoon walk along the fields of stones and back again which was about 10km and lovely, but it was the following morning that was quite special as we had them all to ourselves. It still amazes me that people put these stone here, in this field that I’m standing in, more than 5000 years ago.
South down the coast, the forecast seems to be getting sunnier so we headed out on Monday morning. We still find 3-4 hours is really all the driving we want to do in a day which doesn’t get you as far as you might think at Beatrix speeds and with that in mind, we looked for a midway stop before getting to Il de Re. Wanting to get back to the sea and seeing that almost all of the coast from Saint Nazaire down to Bordeaux seems to be beach, we picked St Jean de Monts as somewhat of a random stab at the map. The town has a real out of season summer holiday feel to it with bars and restaurants all shuttered up for winter but we decided to stay overnight at the Aire to fill up with water which we really needed. For our future reference though, there is a stunning little carpark right on the beach that allows motorhomes to stay for free after mid-September. This place will definitely make our ‘Places To Come Back To’ list.
One of the things you can’t help but notice when you spend time driving round in France is the bridges. They really do bridges well here. The bridge across the Loire at Saint Nazaire is epic and it feels like you’re driving up to the sky and the crossing from La Rochelle to Il de Re is almost as impressive not least as the chap in the tollbooth let us cross for 8 euro not the 18 we were expecting. Needless to say, we didn’t get any photos but trust me and look them up!
Next stop, Il de Re. We deliberately hadn’t booked anything for this trip so we could go where our wheels took us and the island is the first time that we’ve been turned away from a stop as the campsite was ‘complet’. It may not seem like a big deal, but it did worry us a bit…. what happens if they’re all like this? We’re way out of the season but it looks really, really busy. Where will we fit in?
Happily, the second site we found had space for us…. just…. and after a protracted 40 minute booking in session, we settled into Camp Essi, in Ars-en-Re.
It’s fair to say that we loved Il de Re. It felt so chilled out and relaxed that we felt like we were on holiday! The pitch was 100m from the sandy beach, which was really stunning, there was a great little beach bar where everyone (locals and tourists) seemed to gather in the early evening for a drink to watch the sun go down plus we had some fabulous weather with hot sunshine and blue skies in the beginning of October.
The campsite host told us that everyone extends their stay and we were no different so what was going to be a 3 night stop ended up at 5 which meant we didn’t get chance to see some of the other parts of the island that we had planned to. But you know what, that’s ok. We met some lovely people here and had a great early anniversary dinner of fresh Moules et Frites in the beach bar where it turned out that the wine was cheaper than the water. (In another blogging fail we didn’t take any photos but just dived straight in)
Absolutely perfect. We’ll be back.
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