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Île de Ré
October Thursday 26 to Saturday October 30 2021
It was a regular two-week school break for Atticus and Roman. Erica had
arranged for us to visit Île de Ré, an island off La Rochelle, on the
Atlantic coast, south of Brittany and north of Bordeaux. We had
reservations on the fast TGV train, a three-hour trip, to La Rochelle.
We had not allowed time to explore this interesting town, that will have
to wait for another visit. We headed by taxi to Île de Ré, a 30 km
long by 5 km wide island connected to the city by a 2.9 km bridge
Erica had rented a house for our stay in the town of Le Bois-Plage-en-Ré
and the owners were waiting to show us around. It was a very nice white
stucco bungalow with a red tiled roof, sitting on the left side of a
large grassy lawn with a patio for tables and chairs along the front and
the right side of the house. The were three bedrooms along a corridor
leading to the open kitchen next to a large living and dining room area.
This is mostly a summer vacation area so many of the other houses were
closed for the season.
We had a late lunch in Bois-Plage-en-Ré and rented bicycles from a shop
that offered both regular bikes and an electric model. Atticus was keen
to try the electric model, promising to share riding the electric bike
with Roman. We walked out with 3 regular models, and one the electric
model, each with a back basket and a good lock. We were set.
Every night, dinner was food we bought in town, followed by a few games
of crazy eights, hearts or cribbage before bed.
Each day we set out for a long bike ride, exploring different parts of
the island. Lunch was usually in a town on our route. It was always
delicious.
Our first full day had us heading west on the bike paths past the salt
marshes, for which the island is famous. We stopped at a roadside kiosk
displaying a multitude of salt products, from coarse and fine salt, to
mustards, salts flavoured with seaweed or wild herbs, to salt milk and
caramels. Erica bought a bag of caramels as snacks for our outings.
We were headed for the lighthouse, Phare des Balleines, (Whale
Lighthouse). There were too many people lined up to climb to the top of
the lighthouse, so we enjoyed the sea views and walked along a narrow
walkway above the beach to where it exited to ramps to the beach for a
walk.
Another day we rode to the main town of the island, St Martin, a walled
city on the north Atlantic shore of Ile de Re, now a UNESCO site. We
rode through the old gates over very uneven cobblestones into the city.
A bit of history about St Martin from Wikapedia:
During the Huguenot Rebellions of the
1620s, Cardinal Richelieu ordered that the island be fortified as a
counterweight to the nearby Protestant city of La Rochelle on the French
mainland. This included a citadel at Saint-Martin. After La Rochelle had
been subdued, Saint-Martin’s fortifications were largely demolished to
remove its potential threat to royal power.
In 1627, an English invasion force under the command of George
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham attacked the island in order to relieve
the Siege of La Rochelle. After three months of combat in the Siege of
Saint-Martin-de-Ré against the French under Marshal Toiras, the Duke was
forced to withdraw in defeat.
Later, in the 1670s, the French engineer, Vauban was commissioned
to review and overhaul the island’s defences and, as a result, Saint
Martin was enclosed by extensive and modern walls and embankments. This
was done in three major phases ending in 1702 and the end result was an
enclosed town capable of housing the island’s population for a long
siege.
It was fun riding into the city over the old, dry moat and through the
old gates. Like all the streets in the villages we have visited, the
streets are barely wide enough for one car to pass, so most are just one
way “sauf velos” say the signs. We explored the Citadel, still within
the city walls. The exit from the citadel was again over the moat, this
time with marked off game areas where we watched two pickup games, from
the bridge over the moat, a beach volleyball game on one side and a
soccer game on the other side. There was also a long sandy beach outside
the walls where some people were walking, but not swimming at this time
of year.
We woke the next morning to light rain. We stayed in the house for lunch
until the skies clear enough to bikes to the beach on the south side of
the island. There were two groups of children of various ages taking
surfing lessons during their school break, the same break that allowed
Atticus and Roman to holiday with Erica and me. The beginner class was
in the shallows at one end of the beach. In another area, several of the
older surfers were swimming out to the big waves to ride them back to
the beach. Each surfer wore a wet suit and a brightly coloured t-shirt
as a safety measure should they be in trouble. The surf would have been
much too wild for me to contemplate swimming, even with a wet suit.
Another group of older people were packing up, leaving just one man
behind still trying to conquer the surf. He stayed quite a while as we
walked the beach. Some children, not surfing, had been having fun
building hills of stones and stone lined designs on the beach. The skies
were quite black in the west, so we headed back to the house.
Saturday arrived, our last day on the island. We packed up, returned the
bikes to the rental shop and bought croissants and sandwiches at the
bakery to take with us for lunch on the train. After we returned to the
house, the owner of the house arrived to check us out; there were no
problems. The taxi arrived to drive us to the station in La Rochelle in
a snazzy Mercedes big enough to store all our bags. La Rochelle is the
end of the line for the Paris train. The train from Paris arrived at
12:20 PM. Since it is the end of the line from Paris, the train stayed
on the track until people were allowed to board about 1:25 PM. We found
our seats and just enjoyed the views until we arrived in Paris, on time,
about 4:30 PM.
What more could we ask for? The weather was great, we had a very
comfortable house to live in, the bikes we rented were comfortable,
there were great markets nearby to buy for our meals, and the bike paths
were in good condition. It was fun place to visit, especially with
bicycles. I could easily return for another visit.
Go back to
Paris 2021 to read
more about our trip and see photos in an Album.
Go to
Berlin 2021
to read about our visit and see photos in an Album.
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