Wednesday, October 25

There’s a certain magic in second hand and vintage stores. It’s like knowing that someone before you owned this article and maybe it was their favorite, maybe someone they love gave it to them. You can see years of history or find quirky things tucked away in the corners. It’s always fun and I love surfing through the stores. However I must admit, the one I went to today is by far the largest second hand shop I have ever been to. It was the size of a warehouse, I’m not even kidding. I spent an hour and a half just in the clothes area; I didn’t even make it to the rest of the store. There was so much to see. 

Of course the shoe racks took full priority. What's life without a few shoes? But the darn French women have tiny feet! I swear, I couldn’t find anything that was larger than 38, and if it was my size (40) then it was so ugly you just wanted to shudder. Oh the joys of large feet. (For those of you who didn’t catch that, it was sarcasm) I probably spent 20 minutes looking at the shoes, picking a pair up, going “Ooh these are cute, oh wait there's a 6 inch heel on it, guess I’ll just break my neck” or “I like these, what's the size? 35? Are you KIDDING ME?!”

Sunday, October 29^th  

So, here I am, back again after my camping trip. Can I just say that I’m a little overwhelmed right now? I was going through my photos from Thursday till today and wow, we sure were busy.

Let’s start with our drive from La Roche sur Yon to our destination. A beautiful drive through the French countryside with stunning views of the flat plains, all of which I was asleep for. Go me!

 Honestly, I fell asleep sitting up Your Honor, I don’t know how I ended up lying down with my limbs everywhere, my seatbelt unclipped , and my shoes nowhere to be found. Really, I believe the alarm clock is definitely guilty. He deprived me of sleep, oh and while you’re at it, I believe the lulling effect of driving is to blame as well.  Anyhow, upon our arrival in what I now know as Ile de Noirmoutier, the camping car (and us in it) took a stop at what is known as La Gois.

This is La Gois at high tide, in the distance you can see the far coast.

It is a road that becomes submerged at high tide and is the only known road like it in the world. At high tide, its impassable, under at least 9-10 feet of water, but at low tide, well, that’s when things happen. Its about 4 km long and runs from the island to the far coast. During the low water, people come from all over the island to harvest clams and mussels, by digging in the mud. But more on that later.

The perfect spot for camping cars was at the very end of the island and that is where we went.

Beans, baguette, and a roast that Ginette made.

Lunch had a magnificent view of the ocean, with the sun shining and the water glinting.

A lighthouse point.

After a nap, (those are pretty popular round here) we were ready for a bike ride. The path took us through La Herbaudiere,

I want to ride my bicycle.

to the next town, though I cant remember the name, through trees and across rocky paths, and I could feel every rock,

Lots of trees.

let me tell you, because my bicycle shocks were terrible. Finally we arrived in Noirmoutier en l’Ile,

Ginette and Jean Luc

Boats at low tide in Noirmoutier canal.

The church.

which, besides being the name of the island is also the name of one of the towns. Hooray for complicated! But it is so beautiful. All in all, our bike trip was probably 22 km,

He reminds me of my one cat, Aladeen.

And his brother, Atlas.

Just relaxing on hay bales.

which isn’t bad at all, though my but was so sore, you don’t even wanna know.

22.02 kilometers to be exact.

And a beach sunset to top it off.

After La Herbaudiere, we moved to La Guerniere, and went out to explore that area too. I had also gone running that morning, a fabulous, rainy, gray beach run on a deserted beach, which I loved. I like to run when there aren’t people watching. I like running with my family, but when other people are there, looking, I feel like I’m being judged and I don’t like it at all. So I run where there aren’t people, even if it means taking off my shoes and running barefoot in the sand, with my feet frozen to the bone by the time I get back, its worth it. 

As I mentioned my butt was sore, the bicycle ride on Friday was not gentle on my poor hiney,

To La Gois.

Just a seagull on a post.

but (no pun intended) it was interesting to see La Gois at low tide.

1701 is when it was first mapped, but Jean Luc said its been there as far back as people can remember, because people from the island always walked across the dry area to get to the main land, before the highway on the other side.

Timeline.

The tidal chart

We even biked along it a ways, and naturally I climbed one of the towers

The tower. You can see the seaweed on the foundation.

Up we go.

Barnacled steps.

Higher still.

Clam digging.

Towards the mainland.

Geese flying to the oyster farm to seek unlucky morsels.

that were built so that if you happened to be an idiot and came with your car during the rising tide,

Yes the water really does get that high, and sometimes even higher still.

you could escape up one of the towers until the water receded because otherwise you would drown as your car would become submerged under 3 meters of water.

The tour de France actually crossed La Gois in 2013, I think, and there is a running  race that starts when the water is rising, about by your ankles, so by the time you reach the other side you're pretty much wading through calf high water. Sounds arduous. That particular bike trip was only a measly 17 km, but we were all exhausted by the time we returned to the camper.

Saturday was on to another place, this time St. Jean de Monts, on the mainland again, with one of the longest beaches I have seen in Europe

Empty in winter.

A little mosaic.

(not counting Morocco because that’s just unfair) and of course the boardwalk. We then entered the innards of the city to purchase churros, which are little dough sausages, these ones made of potato, deep fried and of course, COATED in sugar.

Pretty sardine cans.

The weirdest pumpkin shapes and colors at a Halloween exhibition

I mean really.

And so it sets.

By the way, the two things about Noirmoutier that it is well known for, number 1 is salt, which they dry and sell in huge quantities, and the other is potatoes, which only become available in April-May, unfortunately, but interesting all the same.

Today, Sunday, before returning home, we betook ourselves to Sainte Gilles Croix des Vie,

I am being judged. Thanks cat.

Old style Chrysler, with California plates!

This little girl had hair and eyes to make Danerys Targerayen jealous.

And this one with her scooter and glasses was just adorable.

another small town on the coast, and went to investigate the market. My favorite smell is when its cold, a fresh cold and then you smell that fragrant smoke from a woodburning stove, and it smells like winter. (Winter is Coming Jon Snow) However, in the market, there was the smell of roasting chickens and meat, with a large truck standing there, turning them, the sizzling spit of fat hitting the fire, the bustle of the market place, the cool air nipping at your face, and the excitement for the new season.

Lots of chicken

And meat too.

After our purchase of a duck and chips, we returned to the camper and went to our seaside stop to eat lunch. Naturally it started raining but we didn’t mind, because it was warm and we had yummy duck and chips. And after that wonderful experience here I am, attempting to convey it all to you!

Hope you enjoy the photos, and Jabez, the GoT references were for you.

Monday, 23^rd October

Today’s entry is all about golf. You have been forewarned.

So, golf. The little I know about it, I only learned today, at the green. I was invited by Jean Luc and I figured it would be interesting. Right and wrong I was. You see, on a usual golf course there are 18 holes, and you play EACH AND EVERY ONE. I mean come on. But before I begin my tirade, a little about the game;

We were joined by a friend of Jean Luc’s who was quite funny though I only understood about 50% of what he was saying.

They played 8 holes, which took them 2 hours, and I was kind of hoping that would be all, but if they are having fun, why stop? That’s how I feel when I’m having fun: honestly I would kill someone who bothered me. We continued on to the next 10 holes and added another member to our group, a friend called Bruno. We went through the 18 holes, them playing and me watching. I of course forgot my SD card for my camera at the house so no photos were taken unfortunately. They were however plentiful ducks and a solitary goose to stare at, which I did. There were also what I can only describe as water rats. They are about the size of a beaver, but with large rat’s tails, and grayish colored fur. Funny looking little guys and pretty tame, you could get within about a foot of ‘em before they went to the water. It was actually quite fun. Jean Luc lost 5 balls in the water and I found 2 on the course that people had left so we replenished with those. Afterwards, the men had a few beers and I sat in obliviousness to the very fast, very complicated conversation.

Tuesday, 24^th October

Some lovely flowers

In orange as well

Market day is on Tuesday. Not the farmers market mind you, but good old fashioned meat, fish and vegetables. Oh and don’t forget the cheese. All the cheese makes me want to drool. We made our way through the stalls, purchasing the fresh that was needed, and eventually arrived at the meat area. One of my food specialties is Lasagne, and I wanted to purchase some mince for it. However I neglected to remember that this is NOT Flores and it isn’t 7 Euros a kilo for mince, it’s actually 26 Euros. Boy was I surprised! I ended up with 17 Euros worth and a dearest wish that I could be back in Flores with well priced meat. Ah, the joys of adulthood.

After returning home, I went over to the neighbor’s house, because I had been invited to come and play their piano. No one was home but they had a beautiful standup sitting against the wall. I don’t have easy access to a piano in Flores, so it’s really very nice to just go next door. I played for a half hour and during that time realized exactly how much I had forgotten: a heck of a lot. I can’t even remember the left hand for All of Me by John Legend which used to be my favorite song. I guess Mom was right; I am contracting Alzheimer’s from aluminum. Props to you Mom, you knew all along.

A quick trip to the library revealed the amount of English books was more than in Flores but still not a lot.

 Of course after that terribly difficult and tiring journey I promptly fell asleep on my bed and only woke up when the next door neighbor’s son who is my age came to take me on a tour around town.

A statue in black and white

Literally I was still rubbing my eyes when I walked out the door. We walked from the house to the center with the statue of Napoleon on his horse. He actually built this city in the 1800’s. The walk was short, only about 10 minutes but Theo (the kid) spoke some English so it was really nice to talk to someone after speaking nothing but French since Saturday.

from teh front

We talked about schools, and my life on the boat. In the square they (there was also his friend Enzo) showed me the mechanical animals in the little ponds that you can control, like the crocodiles that can open their mouths and spit water and cruise up and down, the we walked to the post office, actually across the street was the goal, Theo said that the best Chocolate Chip Cookies could be bought here, so we tested that theory and it was almost 100% right. Then down to the park of the Prefect,

Just an old guy in the park.

across from the Prefect house. I don’t really understand what a prefect does but as far as I could understand he supervises departments of the government for La Roche sur Yon.

Then up to the train station to see the tracks. I enquired as to the possibility of putting coins on the track for the trains to flatten but apparently French teenagers don’t think of the idea of fun as getting train smashed coins.

Train Tracks

What can I say, I had an exotic upbringing. But really didn’t you guys do that when you were young? Its fun!

This is my favorite photo so far.

We passed the music conservatory (closed)

My wonderful guides Theo and Enzo.

and the horse stable area, one of only 10 in the country (also closed) and finally made our way home.

Interesting fountain

I went with them to Theo’s house to play some more piano, and tried to teach Theo how to play Heart and Soul which is a 2 person piece on the piano but we eventually gave up because he couldn’t remember the chords, but it was still fun.

An exciting day, and one made even better by a glorious sunset, worthy of the Caribbean and Flores.