France 2012, Day twelve, Charente-Maritime

Day twelve, Sep 12th 2012

I thought we should have a day out sightseeing, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed for Saintes.

Why Saintes? Well we knew nothing about the place except that, Brenda's maiden name was Saint, it was also the closest large town to the campsite and Dot had seen that there was a Roman Amphitheatre there.

I had picked out a car park close to the river but we could not work the barrier when we got there, so I parked on the street. Paid for two hours parking and walked the short distance to the river.

At the river there was a Roman Arch, The Arch of Germanicus and also a small museum of Roman ruins (not to mention toilets). The arch dates from 18 or 19 AD but was moved in 1843 and was restored in 1851. It looks like it has been put back together by armatures.

I got a street map from the tourist info, at least we would know where we were going now. We had a look around the Roman artefacts, took photos of the bridges and crossed over the river and into the town centre.

Dot noticed on the map where the Roman amphitheatre was and we set off to find it. I had the map and knew the general direction and the were plenty of signposts pointing to it, although many of them were pointing different ways.  The skyline along the way is dominated by a couple large churches, the Cathédrale Saint Pierre and the Basilique Saint-Eutrope.

There was quite a climb to get to the amphitheatre (good views from the top though) and then it was down the other side of the hill, only to climb another hill to get the entrance.

By the time we arrived at the amphitheatre there wasn't much time left to do the full tour, also we were getting hungry (we had left the picnic in the car).  So we just had a walk around the outside and took photos over the fence, before heading back into the centre.

Back down in the centre (via a much shorter route), we had a very brief look around the place and an even quicker look at the shops.

We didn't stop long to shop but did look in at the cathedral stonemasons and watched the craftsmen/women for a wile. I have done this before near to York cathedral and I suppose there will be a stonemasons like it near every other big cathedral.

We then crossed back over the river to find the car and our lunch.  I did take a few more bridge photos on the way back.

It was late by now and we could have had our picnic by the river but we were not sure when the parking ticket ran out. So we drove off to find another spot to eat, there was a place we had passed by on the way to Saintes. When we arrived in Saujon, it was very busy and there was nowhere to park. So we drove on and ended up parked close where we wanted to be anyway.

I don't know if I was tired, hungry, dehydrated or all three but I got a bit ratty when the others couldn't make up their minds where to sit to have our food. I wandered off and moved the car closer to where we had walked to, to calm down a bit.

After our late lunch we drove back to the site, via an Aldi and the most roundabout route you could possibly think of.

Day Eleven or Day Thirteen 

France 2012, Day eleven, Charente-Maritime

Day eleven, Sep 11th 2012

After a morning sat reading in the sun we thought we should visit out local beach at La Palmyre.

We parked on the sea front and had a short walk along the beach path, we wandered along the front for about an hour or so, until the sky's turned very dark.  We headed back to the car very quickly. 

As it looked like rain we just drove to the centre where the shops and bars are.  We walk around the shops but didn't buy much, we also didn't go into any of the bars.

We had a quiet night, we were up late the night previous. 

Day Ten or Day Twelve.

France 2012, Day ten, Charente-Maritime

Day ten, Sep 10th 2012

It was a bit overcast on the morning so I got everyone in the car and we went for a drive.

We stopped of at Lidl to get makings for a picnic lunch and then headed down the road, to Bourcefranc-le-Chapus, the piece of land opposite Le Château d'Oléron on the mainland.

Bourcefranc-le-Chapus is where the old terminal for the railway and the ferry to l'île d'Oléron is, or was until the opening of the new bridge in 1966. Just offshore from the terminus is Fort du Chapus (aka Fort Louvois). Motorhomes use the old railway station car park and the old entrance to the ferry, as overnight parking, I am not sure it it is an official Aire though.

Even though it was overcast, it was still very warm, so we all had a short walk around the port area, taking photos along the way.

From there we drove further round the coast to see if the was a good place to take photos of the Château on the island, but we didn't find anywhere. So we drove over to the island to have our picnic.  We found a place on the far side of Le Château d'Oléron and had our sandwiches on the sea front. before walking some more of the Château walls.

We didn't walk very far, just to the point where we started our walk a few days previous, and then to the church.

Back at the site it was still early and sunny, so we went over to the pool. After a quick dip, while having a couple of beers, we noticed that there was a band on in the bar in the evening, so planed to come back over after we had eaten.

 

I thought the band were very good, and I drank too much Leffe, not a bad night.

Day nine or Day eleven