Ile de Ré

We arrived at Camping Campéole Les Amis de le Plage and found a nice spot which would get plenty of sunshine later in the day and shade early on and the weather forecast was improving. It improved. We enjoyed the site and after 3 days asked if we could stay longer. We were told we could stay until June 30th then we must leave, but we said no – we’ll only stay a few more days. But we didn’t, we left on June 30th. The weather was fab and hot. We walked, swam, had meals out, enjoyed the beach, the perpetual street market, drinking and eating in bars watching football and so on!

One sadness was that Sandra wasn’t up for cycling. In a way, if she had been, we weren’t in the best place on the island for cycling. There are many other locations where extensive cycle tracks radiate all over the place but not from here! I got into an almost daily routine of up and off to the supermarket to shop for the needs for the day, back, breakfast. This was followed by coffee at the van or somewhere else. Lunch – at the van or somewhere else. Beach, swim, beach, van, shower, beer o’clock – at the van or somewhere else, followed by dinner – at the van or somewhere else. Our favourite place was a scruffy bar along the beach favoured by locals as well as tourists. We became familiar with the waiter who was too cool to remember us, but we were there most days. We ate there twice too, and watched 2 England games there. Next door was a nicer bar where we had a couple of meals. Another place we ate was in town. One lunchtime we waited for a table. Another time we had some beer there early evening and realised that booking might be worthwhile for my birthday, but they were shut. Sandra had an idea and we got a taxi to St Martin late afternoon so I could have a birthday treat there. It worked well except the taxi driver wanted to come home earlier than we might have liked but everything worked well in the end as one of the nicer bustley restaurants served all day.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•