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 ...
Surely only you two would be so at sea in the cloud to necessitate a change of course and destination solely for an SFR shop! Still, glad to see you were able to eventually spent some time pissing about on Ars...
ReplyDelete