Ile D'Oleron Part 3. Homeward Bound

 Looking for the sun and finding it! This year we have been so lucky. Having found the sun in France we decided to call it a lucky day and head for home. Actually, we looked at the weather forecast and decided if we were heading home we would rather do it in the sunshine. As the end of September approached, we thought a gentle amble home was better than a frantic dash before of the rain. Being purely practical it is always better, we think, to unpack the van and get the washing and cleaning done in the dry.

We decided to do the journey home mid week and then hopefully tackle the M25 and A303 before the weekend rush. We quickly changed our tunnel booking. Easy to do online and it only cost us £25, which we thought was quite good!

First stop on the way home and back to Tours. 

Only Camp Val de Loire Tours

 I have to say this site is really growing on us. Clean, easy to find and open all year. The only downside is the outside loos, but the showers and water is always hot. I believe the heated block is open in the winter. Of course we arrived on a Monday when the lovely restaurant across the road is closed. Never mind, the wine was good and we made do with home cooking. On a positive note we got ACSI prices so only 22.22 Euros including electric.

We actually got a very nice pitch and could have spent a couple of days here.

The next day we had a relatively leisurely start as we were just going to Saint Nicolas south of Rouen.

Camping Saint Nicolas

An easy drive and we were soon happily settled. Table booked for a meal in the camp restaurant and all was right with the world. Incidentally, the pool looked very inviting and it was warm and empty! After a lovely meal and a bottle of red we were set up for the last leg of the journey.

Camping Les Erables

Our last stop Les Erables at Escalles. A favourite stop for us on the way back. Sadly the site had been closed on the way over.

This site has hugely improved over the years. The toilets and showers have had a massive face lift. The pitches are well laid out, terraced but big. There is a new Reception block where you can buy essentials and bread is available each morning. The barrier is open at 8.15am so an early crossing home can be made. The site is now very popular with Dutch and German visitors alike. A 10 minute drive to the tunnel and Calais port, a great place to start and end a holiday. Sabine the owner speaks good English and they now take ACSI cards off season. 18 euros a night, so we were well pleased. Open April to October.

Beautiful views of the channel, you can actually see the white cliffs. We got a sea view pitch and some sunshine.

Me, getting excited about our room with a sea view. Please note the cardigan, definitely getting chillier, though not time to put the heating on in Krystal yet.

We wandered down to the beach for a last wistful look at the sea and setting sun.

A perfect end to our holiday would have been a meal in our favourite restaurant.

 Sadly it was shut! So not the perfect end we hoped for. We will have to come back next year for seafood!!

Looking forward to next year.

Ile D' Oleron by Default. Part 2. Saint Denis D' Oleron

 We were toying with the idea of trying Ile d'Re again. All the sites we tried appeared to be full and generally very busy. New plan, North on Oleron! Ile D'Oleron is a much bigger island than the Ile de Re, busy but not completely rammed and the campsites seemed quieter. We headed North to Saint Denis Oleron ( there should have been a clue in the name!) Camping Les Lauriers. This site had a good write up in both Camper Contact and Searchforsites.

After a busy hours drive up to the top of the island, we found it. Loads of French wrinklies on the roads in campers and the odd caravan, no Brits!

We had soon set up our camp. Nice large pitch with a hedge, good toilets and showers with hot water. The village of Saint Denis was around the corner and the beach a five minute walk from the site. The site was family run and was a mixture of statics and touring pitches. Very busy and we actually stayed 2 weeks with the site very often full.

The village was a typically small French place, with a super market and a large daily market. There was a harbour with lots going on and loads of beach bars and restaurants. The beach was fine sand but a bit dirty in places. We did try the water but for us a bit on the chilly side, for the rest of the world probably fine!

The harbour just around the corner.

Two weeks here passed in a flash. We were very lucky with the weather with some days being almost too HOT.

Lots of interesting things happening here. We watched two weddings in the village. One on horseback!!

Bride and bridesmaids all made it to the church on horseback.

D ' Oleron is of course made for le velo. Bikes and bike paths everywhere. We road up to the Chassiron Lighthouse it was busy.

Built in 1836 it's the oldest lighthouse on the island. 224 steps up and 46m tall. It was too hot to climb to the top so we wandered around the grounds and had a beer in the shade.

Lots of places to visit on the island. We took another ride to La Bree les Bains, another beach down the coast.

We had a couple of meals in a very nice Brassiere around the corner. Very French indoors, outdoors.

Den found his own place 😊😊😊

All in all, we enjoyed our stay and would go back as there is loads more to explore.

The beaches on the West side of the island are the best but the villages all have something different to offer and the wine is good!!

Ile D'Oleron by Default. Part 1. Saint Trojan les Bains.

 We had decided to make our next stop on the Ile De Re. However a bit of research and a few searches online, threw up the information that most of the sites were full and the Ile De Re was packed.

Time for a rethink. We decided to give the Ile D'Oleron a go. A lot bigger, less crowded, more campsites and not quite as popular with holiday makers, but plenty and sea and sand. It sounded good.

A bit more communication with Google, Camper Contact and Searchforsites and we came up with a site.

Huttopia Oleron des Pins. Sounded good, an eco friendly site in the south of the island near the village of Saint Trojan les Bains. We arrived to find the campsite relatively empty. We were surprised Oleron was so big, a very impressive bridge announced it's arrival and it was toll free.

The trip over the bridge was interesting. Our first time on the island, so all was new.

Camping Les Pins was a very large family site with swimming pool, bar and all the facilities. The toilet block was clean and the showers were hot. Quite expensive at 40 euros a night. We booked in for 4 nights.

A very nice pitch under the pins with some shade. Sandy but not too sandy Krystal managed it OK.

The campsite was very family orientated with loads of small children enjoying themselves.

There was a bar and entertainment on our first night. Not much choice of food though and I guess that was the only downside to this site. We did try the bar food one night and got a very disappointing burnt pizza!

Lots to like here though. A fabulous beach up the road 10 mins on the bikes through the forest on a bike path.

Plage de Gatseau.

Further around the coast another massive fine sandy beach Grande Plage.

 Truly spectacular and very empty mid week. We were so lucky though as the temperature was well into the 30's.

The nearest village down the bike track in the opposite direction, or a 20 minute walk was the town of Trojan les Bains. A seaside resort surrounded by St Trojan les Bains national forest. The national forest was planted to protect villages from being blocked by sand.  There was a small collection of bars and restaurants with the  added attraction of a big market. There was also a night market. Shopping was tricker but there were a few large supermarkets. A little train ran from here up to the coast and we went for a run.

The Little Train of Oleron

Through the forest and up to the coast making stops on the way. Lots of people and families use it for a day out. We did the round trip which took around an hour and 40 minutes it was a very hot day, so we were pleased at the breeze. Another time we would take a picnic and stop off at one of the beaches on the way.

We really enjoyed our time on the island and decided to explore a bit more. Our next site would be further north, near Saint Denis D'Oleron, Les Lauriers. Ile de Re would have to wait for another day D'Oleron had obviously won this time.

Chilling in Coulon

 Continuing our little ramble around France we headed for our next stop Camping Venise Vert near Coulon. Situated in the Marais Poitevin ( Green Venice), a large nature reserve that lies between Niort and the Atlantic Ocean. The area covers over 100, 000 hectares of land and is the second largest National Park in France.

Coulon is one of the "Character Villages" of France. A very French holiday area in the heart of the Marais Poitevin with numerous windy rivers and streams running through it. A great draw for canoes, paddle boards and fisher folks.

Our campsite was about a 20 minute walk from Coulon on a lovely French site. Complete with very hot water, clean loos and showers, a swimming pool, jacuzzi, a small bar and restaurant we were soon set up. It was very hot and humid!

 Enjoying the hugely unseasonable very hot sun.

Having a meal in the very nice camp restaurant. Confit of duck!

We set off to explore Coulon. A very interesting village and quite busy with mainly French tourists. There were dozens of boats waiting for passengers, so obviously it was a very popular place.

There was a massive local fayre going on which looked very well attended. The donkey racing looked like it could have been worth finding, although we didn't actually get round to it! Apparently Coulon is big in the "donkey" world.

There were loads of visitors enjoying the river and the general atmosphere.

I am always surprised how these small French villages go to so much trouble with their environment. This little bee sculpture for instance.

Interestingly the corn was so much bigger than the Somerset varieties.

Houses were carefully placed on both sides of the many rivers and small streams with small boats moored for the trip across. In olden times even cattle were transported that way. Now it looked like predominately holiday homes.

At least the postie didn't have to actually row across the river to deliver the mail.

Lots to see in Coulon from the wine shops to picture galleries. It's only a small place but they even had their own land train.

On our second morning we got the bikes out and rode into the village to suss out a French car boot sale. It was massive. Lots of very interesting items sadly not enough room in the van to bring any home.

Certainly an area of France well worth exploring and one we are sure to visit again.

Trials in Tours

 We had always promised ourselves that we would return to Tours and have a proper look around. This year provided just the right opportunity and we arrived in Only Camp Tours on a very HOT afternoon.

Only Camp Val de Loire is around a 20 minutes bike ride from Tours Centre Ville in the suburbs of Saint Avertin. The camp site is right on the river, not luxurious but pretty spacious with just about adequate loos and showers.

Spot Krystal, view from the river bank.

After a restful night which was very hot ( thank goodness for our fan!)

We set out on our bikes to find Tours. Directions appeared pretty easy, turn right under the first bridge and straight on. Easy to get lost then !! We started on the right route but soon got confused ( its doesn't take much !!) Should we really be entangled with French fishermen on a tiny track. I was following Den. Then there were the bridges!! Loads of them, we negotiated the island in the middle of the river and then found ourselves on the back streets of Tours. With a bit of help from a local and a few minor words from Google we eventually found our way to a main road.  Bear in mind here, I am not the best on le velo. I did manage in heavy Tours traffic on the bike tracks quite well all things considered. The 20 minutes progressed to about an hour. Finally we found the Centre Ville.

I suppose the riot police, dogs, bikes and police cars should have been a clue. We were suddenly in the middle of a full French protest. ( something to do with climate change we think ) There was a lot of singing and jumping about in the fountains, with a few tractors parked around the place.

Police bikes and tractors on display.

 

Den took a few pictures then we snuck around the corner and found a quiet bar for a large drink. I really deserved my Aperol Spritz.

I actually took us 16 minutes to cycle home. We never did get to the old town, but now we know the way, there's always another day. We will have to come back to Tours.

Day 2 in Tours found us cycling along the river bank in the opposite direction. We passed the very nice looking large Municipal swimming pool, next to the camping. Certainly worth further exploration.

Loads of water sports going on in the river.

We had a lovely lunch in the local restaurant by the river. Tours has plenty more to give. Next time we will make it to the old town.