15th June - leaving Grand Corseau

Well the the wind dropped again with no prospect for a week, so I left. La Grande Cote is a great location and rib trips with Francoir excellent training, but if there is no wind, I might as well travel south, there will be other opportunities. I've enjoyed staying at Le Grand Corseau.

La Rochelle the next stop.

La Rochelle is a beautiful city, I know, my SatNav didn't recognise road closures and took me round and round the old city. The classic French crumbly facades shuttered up with those hardly painted wooden shutters. I had to unhook the trailer a few times in order to get out of a no through roads. In the end I gave up and headed north to the van parking area. Having paid to get in I couldn't find the facilities, then the penny dropped, another camping van carpark - I'm outta here!

It was 9:00 in the evening and getting dark so I aimed for the nearest, Camping Au Petit Port near the bridge to Ile Re. Dark by the time I got there reception was of course closed but the bar was open and I was advised to ring the emergency number because staff were still on site. After a while I was allocated a space but found a car parked there and went on to the next I could find only to be moved back once

the car had been cleared out.

This was a hedged in plot which quite suited me. The main thing was it began to get very hot but there was a swimming pool with water jets, great for all my aches and pains.

16-18th June

So hot I stayed by the pool/spar for the next three days