To continue from Cap Ferret but before I do, I heard through the grapevine (Peter Hayward, Reiki Master and Chiropodist extraordinaire) that Shambo the Bull (remember from Skanda Vale) has been put to sleep by the authorities. If anyone has anymore information I would (and I am sure others would too) be very interested to hear about it. While I was there hundreds of people visited the place to see the bull so I am certain there must be a lot more going on.
My next port of call was the wonderful Gironde. I arrived at about 1830hrs and the Reception of the camp site was closed so I rang the number and the lady was not at all helpful “too late – come back in the morning”. Most sites have a place to park if you are arrive ‘too late’ but no not this place in fact it was a mammoth task to turn Shanti round to get out again! So up the road we drove (the good thing in France is campsites are everywhere) and found a beautiful site in a very posh part of Royan called St Palais sur Mer. It is rather like the south coast i.e. Cote de l’Esterel/Cote d’Azure in a small scale. Beautifully clean and it felt wonderful, so much so that I decided to stay 3 days before heading north to just north of La Rochelle L’Aigullion sur mer in the Pertuis Breton area.
Well for the first time I booked into a site which was naff, dirty and crowded and it wasn’t even French holiday time! Mind you the beach was a dream … Miles and miles of beautiful golden sands and on one of my ‘daily wanders’ along the beach, ambling along with feet in the sea, sun shining gloriously on my now well bronzed torso I took my sun glasses off to check I wasn’t seeing things…
No Sure enough A middle aged man was walking towards me in his birthday suit…. I had ventured into the naturalists part of the beach – no I didn’t take any photos – tee hee!!
One of my clients has a house and gite in Cozes and she had said to me if I wanted to I could go and stay there. Well after the experience of the grotty campsite I decided to take her up on her offer and so headed back down the coast. I had a really nice week there but the weather was pretty awful! The house has a wonderful swimming pool but I only got to swim in it twice ‘cos it was too cold! Anyway while there I visited the magnificent city of Saints and popped into an estate agent – well….
Next thing I am visiting the perfect place for a sanctuary much in need of renovation it was in the middle of nowhere (if you look on the map St Jean d’Angely is the nearest town and if you look east it was between Aulhay and Longre). Be interested to know how many of you would take a retreat out in the wilds of France??????
Up to Nantes next – stayed in a municipal site on the canal – very peaceful and so cheap 6 euros a night! Visited Nantes one day and took the wrong road back to camp site and ended up going over the suspension bridge at St Nazaire what a fantastic bridge!! Only trouble was I must have been going home time because it was like the M25 in rush hour!!
Onward…
A long haul this time to just north of Brest a really spot again the campsite was yards from the beach. A place called Le Dunes de St Marguerite in Lannilis. A big thank you to Les Olives for fitting me in for dinner and serving a bonne gastronome! The beach here is famous for Fly Surfing – I wanted a go!! I saw one lady get all the gear on and before she could get to the sea the ‘kite’ took off and she was dragged along the sand – oh boy was she winded. Unfortunately she was quite petite. This was a dream of a place set in sand dunes with miles of golden sands again. So nice decided to stay a week!!
Had an overnight stop in St Brieuc and it rained all night…. Now in St Malo where I have been for nearly two weeks in a campsite overlooking the bay with its own beach at the bottom of a spiral staircase with 84 steps!! Good exercise for me to get fit for the Camino!! I have had a change of plan. I am not driving to Germany to meet Charlotte she is being brought back to the UK by plane and I am taking here away for a week in Shanti before I fly to Biarritz to start the Camino. I hope you are all well and that none of you have been flooded out
Au Revoir
Jan
