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| Beach from l'Hôtel de la Plage, Ronce-les-Bains |
The hotel at Ronce-les-Bains is in a spectacular location, right on the beach at the top of the La Tremblade. The hotel is presumably well known to the French as it starred as the location for a very successful soap opera on local TV; the French equivalent of Crossroads perhaps - only with a bit more panache we hope. The village was built for tourists and most of the houses looked like second-homes; perhaps it has a life during the winter months but it would need to be quiet.
The coast along the western shore north of Royan was spattered with crowded beaches. Whereas to the east between La Tremblade and Marennes are flooded flat-lands - the focus for the farming of mussels, oysters and shellfish generally. When we finally did succumb to sitting-on-the-beach it was on Île d'Oléron through a pretty little town, Château-d'Oléron; on our way out to the sea we drove along a wonderful quay populated with gaily painted wooden sheds all in primary colours and all dedicated to the processing of shellfish in one form or another.
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| Street intersection, Rochefort |
On our way back we stopped at Rochefort - where the Charentes finally reaches the sea. We should really do some research on places in France before we visit them! Turns out this is the naval centre for France and has been since Napoleon's time - France's Portsmouth as it were. The old shipyard is a tourist destination now and work was in progress on refurbishment of the replica tall-ship
L'Hermione. The town was created in the 17th century as an alternative to the rebellious La Rochelle and so it has a much more formal and recto-linear centre compared to most French cities. The city is festooned with an assortment of bright and colourful art pieces - some traditional but quite a few like the umbrellas above an intersection in the commercial quarter.
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