Trip to Le Lavandou (1)

We recently accompanied Jean-Pierre & Catherine to visit Tonton André in Le Lavandou, just over 1,000 km drive from La Tranche! The weather was atrocious practically all the way there but at least we saw SOME sunshine during the next couple of days.

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I couldn't resist sharing the first four photos with you to show the amazing weather we had on Sunday morning. Photos 1 and 3 were taken 42 minutes before photos 2 and 4. What I can't show you is the thunder and lightning!

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By the afternoon we felt safe enough to venture up the steep hill behind Bormes-les-Mimosas to the little chapel that Minouche loved so much. Catherine and Tine are enjoying a short break in Photo 5, whilst Photos 6 & 7 show views of Le Lavandou in the distance, and the roof tops of Bormes.

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More next time!

Making the most of a lovely afternoon

Following our exploits in the 'cherry-picker' we continued our walk onto the beach. The light and colours were amazing as I'm sure you'll agree from the photographs above.

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We've had fairly wild seas again recently, to accompany the wind and rain, and the sand is once again being eaten away on the main beach. Hopefully it will be replenished by more gentle tides. The heavier tides are more exciting though!

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We watched the sun sink lower and lower in the sky with an ever-changing horizon, then back to the roaring log fire and Sky TV!!

Adventure in the air!

Jean 'playing' with his new toy
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Up, up & away!

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View over the town, the church tower in good view

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Over the campsite to the 'plan d'eau' where people learn sailing skills

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Unusual view of the house

Look how green it is in Autumn/Winter!

The new jetty over the dunes

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The campsite might be short of campers but there's plenty of activity going on out-of-season, with Monique & Rémy busy in the office and Jean & Pascal busy in the grounds.

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This year Jean has hired a 'cherry picker' so that he can safely prune the upper branches of the many trees on the site. Making the most of the best weather we've had for ages we spied Jean working hard, and couldn't resist going to see more closely. We didn't hesitate when offered a trip into the tree tops for a new view of La Tranche, and hope you like the results.

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The adventure? After enjoying the views Jean set the machine in motion for us to descend. Suddenly the alarm sounded and the cherry picker froze - we were trapped mid-air! Luckily Pascal was on hand to use the controls below to get us back to terra firma. Otherwise we might still be there!

Searching for La Pointe d'Arçay

The weather looked a little more promising on Wednesday so we drove past La Faute-sur-Mer to see if we could finally get to the tip of the sand-spit at Arçay. Sadly we were thwarted once again even though we walked miles along the perfect, practically deserted beach. I've since looked more closely at the detailed map and think next time we should drive a little further through the rabbit warren of small roads before setting off walking! Watch this space!

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There's a lot of mussel farming in this area and we saw several boats checking production on the 'bouchots' (wooden stakes) positioned in straight lines. Mussels must be very disciplined to attach themselves to the right spot!

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We spotted another big jelly fish - we've seen very few since we moved here (honestly, Simon!). To finish, a photo of the last of the sun before dark clouds took over once again. It's been grey ever since!

Another day out

The weather has been so poor recently that we've made the most of any chink of blue sky. So national holiday or not we motored up the coast to explore the peninsula around Jard-sur-Mer, and what a lovely afternoon we had.

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Jard is a busier town than La Tranche (as we found a few days later when we went to the cinema there with Jean & Monique, having a great evening) but the town itself is not really on the coast. Like in other areas a man-made port has been created, which extends the town towards the sea. Just south of the port are low-lying clay cliffs which I'm sure must be at risk when the sea is rough. I loved the pebble beach, but I wasn't very sure how natural it was. Once again some horizon shots - the first four photos all taken at Jard.

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Driving on a little further we came across L'Abbeye du Lieu-Dieu which is closed to the public as it is being renovated. It's tucked away, surrounded by farm buildings, in the middle of nowhere. We continued along the road (knowing it was a dead-end) and found a beautiful spot which you could imagine was how all this area was in previous centuries. The light was amazing, as I'm sure you'll agree.

More educational stuff!

More photos from our map-reading day out (courtesy of J&M's birthday present).

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We didn't just see menhirs, dolmens and wild boar as you can ascertain from above. The first photo shows the remains of a Gallo Romaine tower not far from Bernard (you can see two of a wind turbine's blades sticking out from the tower - Ancient and Modern!)

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A few weeks ago I posted a photo of a field of corn, just left to dry. Well they're still around (Photo 2). I'm sure you'll agree with me that leaving corn-on-the-cob for animal feed is criminal. Mind you I don't think I've ever seen sweet corn 'ears' for sale here. The French don't know what they're missing.

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The last three photos were taken at L'Ancien Moulin de Rabouillères (otherwise known as Le Moulin Bots Pias which is local patois for "sabots plats", or worn-down clogs). It was built in 1819 and was used for grinding flour right up to 1955. The thatched open barn was just behind it - it wouldn't keep anything very dry nowadays!

"A Load of Old Rocks"

Back in the 70s, on holiday with good friends of ours we decided to visit Stonehenge. "Why?" said our friend."It's just a load of old rocks!"

A convoluted way of introducing this post. Last Monday we decided to visit some ancient standing stones, using the detailed map that Jean & Monique kindly gave to me for my birthday. It was exciting, like a treasure hunt: we'll definitely do it again sometime soon as there are plenty more ancient sites in the area (apart from us, I hear you say).

One stop was at the Dolmen des Pierres Folles. I was just opening the car door and Tine said to shut the door quickly. Right behind us passed five wild boar, adults and young. Sadly the camera wasn't switched on so I couldn't get photos straight away.

(By the way, it took us hours to drag our friend away from Stonehenge. He was totally fascinated!)

I've put the photos from our day out on http://picasaweb.google.com/PapamanPicasa/ALoadOfOldRocks

Vendée Globe

Every four years Vendée makes the international news when the Vendée Globe single-handed boat race leaves Les Sables d'Olonne, just 40 minutes up the coast from here.

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We drove there on Wednesday, unsure if we could get parked up as we had heard they'd had big crowds, in fact 700,000 visitors BEFORE the race itself. Despite very grey skies we had a wonderful time, jostling with the crowds to see the boats themselves (magnificent) and quite a few of the sailors too.

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As well as seeing the boats there were two big marquees with stands and displays (à la Boat Show in London) where we couldn't resist taking the photo of Tine as fish-bait!.

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Hope you appreciate the expense we went to for the last two photos: the helicopter was VERY expensive! Shame we stayed at home then, avoiding the rain and enjoying a bird's-eye view on TV from the comfort of our living room. The Aviva boat is skippered by Dee Caffari, one of two British women in the race (in fact the only women). 'Roxy' in the first photo is skippered by Samantha Davies, the other British woman. Ellen MacArthur is a goddess in these parts.

Autumn growth

For someone who loves mushrooms I am not very confident picking wild ones, always fearful that they could be poisonous. Last week cousin Jean gave us some wonderful mushrooms that he, Léa and Mathys had picked in the campsite. It certainly is the season at the moment as it has been so wet (we have felt like we're back in the UK!)

The first photo is one that Nicole took on our walk in the Longeville Forest. It looks beautiful, but would you eat it? See what I mean? The next two photos were taken in the campsite when we went on a hunt for pine cones (great for starting the fire). One pine cone had its own mushrooms growing out of it, and the other mushrooms were about 5 inches (12.5 cm) in diameter, with a bright yellow underneath. Amazing!

Back at home we've brought in the lemon tree that Matt's mates Martin & Joel bought for us this Summer when they lodged in the 'East Wing'. There's new leaf growth, blossom and lemons all at the same time! The one in the photo looks ready to pick, so maybe soon it will accompany one of Tine's G&Ts (well a slice at least)!