…is the day I followed in the footsteps of Jean-Claude the French Canadian. When I was at school we used text-books that followed his story as he travelled to La Rochelle to stay with his French family. As I cycled into La Rochelle today I remembered the imaginary walks around the market and asking for directions to the port! It was nothing like I had imagined, but it was brilliant.
The cycling was also great, with only a few breaks, beautiful scenery and long fast roads. The sun broke through after a damp start, still one man down, and it continued to shine through the day; the previous two rainy days were forgotten.
We got to the campsite at about 230pm and set up tents, then headed into La Rochelle Centre Ville. We hadn’t realised it was a Bank Holiday equivalent and it was a brilliant atmosphere. Street Entertainers, markets, music, food, it was all going on. The fort/castle structure gives a oldie feel to that whole area. We sat around on the dockside and chatted. We had wandered through the streets enjoying the entertainment, apart from the stupid statues.
Evening came and we headed to a restaurant! The Major allowed us to shun the camping stoves since it was Al’s last night with us. It was a delightful, social evening: true holiday.
I took a photo at 12 O'Clock everyday.
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We were there a couple of weeks ago! Camped on the Ile de Ré- beautiful! Enjoy!
Is ‘The Major’ a real major. He sounds quite fearsome.
No, not officially, but we elected him so. Al, one of the other guys, is joining The Marines in September, which is why we had the militray theme. Keith is a natural leader and he had arranged everything like ferry and places to aim for, and he kept us all going. We enjoyed mocking him for it too!!
Hi Chris,
I have enjoyed reading about your travels, you have certainly covered a few miles over the years.
I am hoping you can give me some advice on a cycle trip we are planning in July. We hope to ride from La Rochelle to St Malo over 4 days covering up to 300 miles (75 ish each day). We will certainly do in reverse some of the route you did, but will probably ride further north west towards quimper to add the extra miles. How did you find the St Nazaire to La Rochelle section of road and do you have the exact route you to took please.
Best regards
Alex Miller
The route we took is here: https://chramm.wordpress.com/biarritz-2011/route-2/
Although that is as close as I could get it. On the coast that you will be following I have done the route to the nearest road. In actual fact there was a well-paved cycle route for some of that way just to the west, you can see it through the trees on the satellite view.
The going was fine, pretty quick, and if anything a little boring at time- through another forest!!
EuroVelo Route 1- follows the coasts the whole way along the West Coast of Europe so we joined that, signed most of the way, at St Nazaire down to La Rochelle. A lot of time, though we cut the corners off rather than going all the way round all the peninsulas. There were not as many campsites as in some part of France so I am glad we usually had somewhere to aim for. Hope some of that helps.