Sunday 1 November 2009

Cycle ride in the marais








Just a week behind now with my blog posts!

Last Sunday a knock on the door revealed Monique & Jean - would we like to venture further afield for a bike ride, putting the cycles in the back of the van and taking our car too? A quick 'yes' from us (and a shower for Tine!) and off we went, stopping just before l'Abbaye Lieu Dieu and starting our adventure under grey clouds.

Les marais are the marshes that are everywhere around here - evidence of the ancient Golfe des Pictons when the local area was under the sea speckled with islands (like La Tranche), before nature with a little help from the Dutch and the monks decided otherwise! There is a fantastic network of canals, ditches and waterways with occasional home-made bridges, some more manageable than others as you can see above.

By the time we arrived at Talmont the sun made a valiant effort to come out and the rest of the day was glorious. The castle at Talmont is very impressive, the fortress dating from the time of Richard the Lionheart. We enjoyed our bought sandwiches there having found nowhere open to have lunch!

Continuing our ride we stopped for a coffee at this hotel overlooking the oyster beds at La Guittière and enjoying the now very warm sun. On our way back to the van I JUST managed to get the camera out on time to get these flying swans - sorry it's rather blurred!

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