All photos from this trip are HERE, previous installment HERE
I think that leaving the beach made us feel a bit ill, a bit flu-like and bunged up – the realisation of home set in! We opted to try the Verdon-sur-mer to Royan ferry to avoid a long drive, but blimey – €47 for van and 2 people for a 20 min “slow” crossing was a bit steep – not sure we’ll do that again. But all bunged up, we headed to Fouras on the coast which on any non-drizzly day in season is probably a lovely place to visit, but on a damp September it was a bit of a ghost town, so after ambling and exploring we just headed to a pleasant municipal aire in Tonnay-Charente to drink beer and ibuprofen, as well as explore their really old suspension bridge.
Feeling a bit better, we ambled north on back-roads stopping at the pleasant Coulon which is clearly a tourist base (trap!) for exploring the many water ways available, many many more than Venice. Probably bustling in peak season, but pretty quiet in mid September. Continuing north and exploring little places en-route, we got to Thouars which had an old castle and pleasant enough to spend the night, though a nightmare of tight one-way (or not) streets – so don’t entirely trust Sat-Nav here!
With the onset of winter, we got to Angers and explored the city a bit, but got absolutely soaked through so didn’t see the city at its best. We overnighted there and astoundingly had to have the heating on to warm up and to dry out our clothes a bit! It was worth staying as the following morning was sunny and allowed us to explore what is a reasonably pretty and very interesting place. We stumbled across a 10km running race, damn – if only we knew! (!)
After Angers we met up with some friends who were in a gite which was really good, but for some reason we were feeling a little tired the next day! Nothing to do with copious amounts of wine, and at least we stayed awake till after tea… eh…? 🙂
Once we eventually rolled out of bed, we visited Fougères which is a very pretty town with free motorhome areas, and a lovely walk, castle and just a rather pleasant place to be. Recommended for at least a quiet stopover.
And then for our final day leaving from Le Havre, we headed to Honfleur nearby and found a very pretty and pleasant little coastal town. Very impressive to walk around and visit, busy though it was wet, so in peak season it may be hell… Very much worth a visit and would be worth an evening out if possible. However, we were leaving on the Le Havre to Portsmouth ferry which we will never use again… The crossing was 5 hours, but the first 3 were very rough with loads of people being violently sick (including Mel!) – and even people chucking up in the corridor…. Next time we’ll do the extra drive to Calais….
So thats the end of this holiday! Not really a trip and rather boring from an exploratory perspective, but rather good from a biking and beaching holiday which is what we needed!