Beautiful Island

'Belle Île' is a name well chosen. This island has everything, from rocky coastline to sandy beaches,

clear waters for perfect anchorages (Follyfin seen nearest and centre), and wonderful walks on a coast path studded with clumps of 'wild' hydrangeas ...

it's easy to see why Sarah Bernhardt chose to build her reclusive home here close to the northernmost point of the island.

Follyfin went like the clappers for our 50-mile passage here from Île d'Yeu, overnight last Tuesday 17th June. It went well, in fact so well that we arrived too early to enter our chosen rocky anchorage (Port Kérel on the south coast of the island) and so had to 'heave to', i.e. stop, for an hour about a mile off the coast to wait for dawn! But it was worth it, with the lifting keel allowing us to tuck close in at the head of the inlet very near the beach. At low tide I could stand in the water beside the boat! Seeing several locals plant their fishing pots near the rocks around this small bay, we decided to do the same, collecting it again just before dawn the following day.

No lobsters this time but a few other interesting species, including a small monkfish (we think), a baby crayfish and a couple of tiddlers (not shown):

These all went back into the watery deep but not the 10 large prawns which were cooked and eaten a few hours later. We hope to catch a few more next time...

On Friday we headed round to the north coast of the island and into the main port, Le Palais, which we visited last September. We had volunteered Follyfin to be the host boat for the Cruising Association Midsummer Rally. Le Palais inner harbour was extremely crowded and noisy - until the early hours on both Friday and Saturday nights. Follyfin can be seen, just, in the centre of the picture below as the inside boat of four rafted out from her. She is just in front of that dark red-fronted building that turned out to be a night club-cum-bar, completely dead by day but very much alive between the hours of 22:00 and 05:00! France winning their match on Friday evening made matters even worse ... we have vowed never to visit this harbour on a weekend again!

Notwithstanding the unlooked for night-time 'entertainment', the Belle Île meet was a success, helped by the balmy calm summer weather. Saturday evening supper was served on Follyfin moored under the floodlit citadel (Vauban again ...). Le Palais laid on an SAR display with helicopter and fire appliances in full attendance in the afternoon and music and dancing on the quayside into the early hours - they must have known the CA was visiting! Nothing to do with France having a nationwide music festival on midsummer's night of course.

On Saturday we had explored more of this lovely island by bus and on foot, visiting the other smaller port Sauzon at the north of the island. This looked much more to our liking so it was to there we hastened on Sunday as soon as we could escape through the lock at Le Palais. Sauzon is a delightful small drying harbour with a much quieter more tranquil atmosphere than Le Palais.

with a lovely little church boasting some of the most splendid, striking, modern (1950s) stained glass windows we have seen, not to mention the perfect model square-rigger suspended over the altar.

Follyfin was sailed in at high water to a point right up the harbour creek so that she was left high and dry as the tide went down.

Sad to leave the beautiful island yesterday but a return visit to the Quiberon Bay is a must before returning home in a couple of weeks. Now turning back towards the north and east, hoping to catch a couple of days in the Morbihan again.

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And langoustines!

The aftermath ...

'Caught' yesterday morning from fishing boat moored on quay at Port Joinville, Île d'Yeu. At 12€ for a kilo for 'vivant' langoustines, 'twas a tasty catch indeed!

Rested and undeterred, we sail on tonight, a 50-mile night passage to Belle Île. With a north-easterly force 4/5 forecast, it should be a very pleasant trip.

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Lobsters!

The entrance to St. Denis on the Île d'Oleron could be tricky if you didn't time it right ...

Arriving there the day before my birthday, we were fortunate to find plenty of space after a busy weekend in the marina. We also spotted Wizard of Paget, a rather special racing boat (a one-off German Frers, built 50 years ago to race in the Americas Cup and renovated by its current owners 12 years ago) belonging to friends from the Cruising Association. My special birthday meal consisted of fresh lobster bought in the local market,

and cooked by the skipper, accompanied by some excellent sparkling Saumur, followed by drinks aboard Wizard. The day for me was total relaxation, doing nothing except reading (A Tale of Two Cities - appropriate for our recent visit to Rochefort), sitting in the sun and generally watching the world go by ... bliss!

The Île d'Oleron, being quite a bit larger than the other islands we have visited on this trip, required bikes for exploration. Duly hired, we set off on a rather overcast afternoon but soon realised that the saddles on hire bikes are not built for comfort. Managed to make it as far as the impressive lighthouse, the Phare de Chassiron, positioned at the northernmost tip of the island, to eat the baguette sandwich, see lots of salt pans which supply the main island industry and to visit the other possible port of call for Follyfin, Le Douhet, before returning somewhat saddle-sore. At least we established that Le Douhet is not for us: far too small and too tricky an entrance!

Staying in port a day longer than intended, to wait for a storm to pass, undaunted we set off north early on 5 June towards the Île de Ré, intending to go in to Ars. However with the wind on the nose the passage took too long for us to make it over the bar at Ars so we dropped anchor, intending to go in the following morning on the rising tide. However this plan was thwarted by the French mobile company, SFR, from whom I purchase my 3G mobile connection for the trusty iPad. After multiple attempts at recharging online and several frustrating phone calls mainly to robots that kept telling me to "tapez un si vous ..., ou tapez deux si vous ..., ou tapez trois si vous ..." and me trying all the different combinations because the bit after "tapez" was spoken so quickly I couldn't understand what was said, I eventually found out that the SFR website does not accept any bank card unless it is French. Grrrrrr! To cut a long story short, instead of going into Ars we headed back to La Rochelle where the nearest SFR shop was located. Only consolation was another port entry through the twin towers and an overnight stay in the Vieux Port.

So Saturday 7 June we had a very pleasant sail back up to Ars on the north-east coast of Île de Ré and timed it perfectly so we could enter the inner basin, Bassin de la Prée, just about at high water. This was important since there is a drying sill over which there would only be a maximum of 1.8 m of water at high tide. Even with our lifting keel, one does not want to cut it too fine. The port of Ars was alive with holiday-makers and bicycles. Our berth was one of very few available for visitors. You can see Follyfin in the centre, just to the right of the big white house with the red roof.

Ars (yes, pronounced exactly as spelled) is a lovely, relaxed, slow place. The church is very old, founded in the 11th century, and has a very distinctive tower. The carvings over its impressive doorway are unfortunately being eroded away

The town is quaint with curious old buildings dotted about the place. The ice cream is seriously good too.

At this point, dear reader, you may be wondering why this post is entitled "lobsters" in the plural. The reason is simple: we have caught our first one, yesterday, and that is not all ... this morning we had another! Follyfin has moved north again, from Île de Ré to Île d'Yeu. After quite a marathon sail against the wind on Monday 9th June, and having a forecast for settled weather, we decided to anchor overnight on the south coast of the island. The bay is between the headland with the large concrete cross and the one with the ruined castle (see previous blog post). It has a few holiday shacks and small fishing boats moored. It also has some very menacing rocks, Les Ours, which dry.

Follyfin is positioned just inland from these rocks which have proved to be fertile lobster territory. Dropping the creel near to the rocks on the first night, bated with some fish heads saved from previous meals, imagine our delight when hauling it up yesterday morning to find a lobster inside! Not quite as large as my birthday lobster, but as you can see, he was big enough for the pot and made a delicious hors d'oeuvre for last night's dinner.

What is more, we have caught another one this morning! So, this place, named the Anse du Vieux Chateau, will forever be connected with lobsters in our minds. Of course we have been here before, on the land on our previous circumambulation of this island but little did we think we would catch our first lobsters here. A beautiful spot for more reasons than one ...

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Louis XIV's legacy - at least one of them

This is the town of Rochefort, situated about 16 miles up the Charente river from the coast and Île d'Aix, our last port of call. Established between 1666 and 1670, this is where the French navy was built. To protect it several forts were built, including Fort Lupin on the south bank of the river

and Fort Boyard just outside the mouth of the Charente estuary; it took over 50 years to complete by which time it was redundant!

Although the Charente river is tidal and not very deep, large coasters regularly travel up and down it. We met one such large vessel which hailed from Cardiff. These coasters need to take great care not to run aground and to this end, at every bend in the river, there are leading lines or transits, lettered TT to AA, placed to help them navigate a safe channel. The trip up the river had to be timed carefully since entry to the harbour at Rochefort is through a lock which only opens for about an hour or less around high water. This results in queues of boats in the river outside waiting for the lock opening and then a procession into the harbour, often degenerating into chaos, but afterward resuming perfect peace.

Fortunately Follyfin entered alone on Wednesday 28 May, a day before the Ascension day holiday rush, and was happily berthed on (we afterwards learned) the Quai d'Honneur, with a grandstand view of all the shenanigans of the following day.

During our 3-day stay in Rochefort (nothing to do with the same-sounding name cheese, Roquefort), we imbibed a huge amount of French naval history. Without wishing to bore you, the reader, I will relate just a few of the most astonishing facts we learned here, copiously annotated with photographic evidence ...

1. Le Corderie Royale (Royal Ropeworks). Built 1666 and over 374 metres long, it was then the longest building in Europe. Conceived by one of Louis XIV's most talented engineers, François Blondel, its foundation was a wooden raft fashioned from many oak trees, to allow for the very marshy soil near the river. The building was burnt down by the Germans at the end of WWII and recently restored, at which time the raft was found still to be in tact. It is a splendid building, seen below from the river (this side specially adorned as it was the first view of visiting dignitaries),

but left rather plain on the opposite side, seen only by the workers ... the palm trees only added lately for the benefit of tourists. Inside there is a wonderful display of rope-making as it was done then. Huge anchor ropes, 200-300 metres long were made here.

2. L'Hermione: A replica of a traditional fully rigged frigate, it has been 12 years in the making and is due to sail across the Atlantic next season where it's original namesake took part in the American war of independence ... against the English.

It's length overall is 66 m, it's mainmast is over 47 m high, it weighs over 1000 tons (equivalent to 46 current containers) and the sail area is equivalent to 9 tennis courts. The crew of the original Hermione numbered 320 but the modern version will only have 75 young people to sail her. We have to hope they have done their homework when we see the spider's web of standing and running rigging involved!

3. Musée National de la Marine: a fascinating place where we spent a whole afternoon, aided by an excellent audio guide in English. Here we discovered that both the word 'mayonnaise' and the flower name 'begonia' (you will have to research these for yourself good reader!) originated in Rochefort! The set of surgical implements carried aboard a French naval vessel in those days was an eye opener. Thank heavens for keyhole surgery these days.

On Saturday evening, after a surfeit of sight-seeing, it was time to leave on the ebb tide. Once again we tied up on a buoy south-east of the Île d'Aix to wait for daylight before moving to our next port of call, St. Denis on the Île d'Oleron. How surprised were we to find we had caught some fish on the way down the river.

Okay okay, they are just tiddlers, none more than 2 cm in length, and they were sucked in through the engine filter ... but it's a start!

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