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Day 31 La Rochelle to Fouras les Bains Click to view route in new page

Friday June 3, 2011, 41 km (25 miles) – Total so far: 1,087 km (675 miles)

We cycled from La Rochelle to Fouras-Les-bians. Seriously – this is what it is called!

As we were cycling along swarms of sandflies attacked us. They stuck to our suncreen and got into any open orafice. It was disgusting. Our arms and legs were black with bugs!

We stopped at the supermarket to get some supplies (beer) and were relieved to be inside away from the little beasties. We finished our shopping, starting packing our supplies onto our bikes when a huge swarm attacked us! It was like a sand storm of sand flies. I covered my entire face with my neckerchief and shouted to Mike to “run for cover”. Mike ran for the safety of the supermarket while I quickly locked the bikes and ran for cover also. We were both black with sandflies.

We were too scared to leave the airconditioned comfort of the supermarket. The little brats seem to be attracted to our bright yellow shirts. We sat for a little while, gathering the courage to make a run for it. Once on the bikes and cycling it wasnt too bad. We both had our neckerchiefs covering our faces to minimise swallowage. I didn’t want to camp with these bugs so we tried to find a hotel but they were all full.

As the weather got cooler, they seemed to disappear a little so we ended up camping. We couldn’t handle cooking amongst the swarms so we had a feed of sausages and frites at the campground restaurant.

Kids covered in mud – obviously to stop the sandfly attack.

Day 28 – Le Village du Bois de saint Jean to Le Tranche sur mer

Tuesday May 31, 2011, 43 km (27 miles) – Total so far: 983 km (611 miles)

Today was another day of expensive camping grounds, most of them 25 euros plus. One campground quoted us 46 euros just to put up our tent for the night. Luckily we managed to find a basic campground for only 12 euros and we had the place to ourselves!

Today was a mostly scenic ride alongside the sea, past some more Surfers Paradise style towns. The camping grounds along this have become very expensive – 20 euros plus! All we want to do is put up our tent for the night and move on the next day.

We found a modestly priced camping ground for 16 euros a night, and it was full of British holiday makers! It is the busiest campground we have come across and everybody was British. Apparently it is school holidays so that explains things a bit.

The one good thing about it being a British holiday resort is that the standard of the facilities are excellent. There are separate ladies and mens toilets and showers, the toilets all have seats and each cubicle has toilet paper! It also had a bar that was actually open.

Day 23 – Le Frandiere to Noirmoutier le L’ile (click link for route)

Thursday May 26, 2011

We packed up our stuff and headed further up the island to look around. It was cold, windy and threatened to rain all day. I didn’t think too much of the island – but I guess the weather had a bit to do with that.

Around 4.30pm a big black cloud came across, it got really cold and it started to spit with rain. We headed for the first hotel we could find.It was a very basic hotel and the room was a bit grotty – but it passed the sniff test. I don’t mind roughing it a bit if I have to – but draw the line at a smelly hotel.

We checked in, and when I opened the door to the toilet – it had a strong smell of man wee. You know that disgusting smell you get in toilets that men use? Not that I make a habit of using mens toilets – but the occasional time you have to use the mens loos at a night club ‘cos the queues are too long for the ladies. Service station toilets also have that smell. Also if you stand too close to any wall in France you will also get that smell as french guys will wee anywhere. I can always tell when men are sharing the campground toilets.

Anyway – I just pretended I was backpacking, put up with the smell and we headed out for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner in a cosy restaurant. It is common to have a fixed price menu here so we went for that. We both had smoked salmon for starters. Mike had steak and I had risotto for main. For desert we got a selection of mini deserts. It cost more than our hotel room but we didn’t care – it was delicious.