25/09/09

Day 17 – September 25
Sorry, a bit of a slow news day today!
The bikes came out again this morning – deep joy – and we headed off for another beach day. Whilst the sun has been out it has been very hot, but there has been considerably more cloud around, maybe a sign of things to come? Additionally there has been quite a brisk breeze, so overall quite a bit cooler.
We decided to treat ourselves to lunch out today. We have had to limit ourselves quite strictly in this respect. When we are on holiday usually it is a case of “where” rather than “if”, but we can’t allow ourselves to get carried away in the holiday spirit or we would be swiftly out of budget and heading home early!
We had lunch at a beachfront restaurant we had spotted yesterday, having the set lunch menu which was nonetheless beautifully presented – the omni-present moules, this time slightly curried, followed by a very thick steak of cod which was absolutely delicious. The dessert was an ice cream/meringue/whipped cream concoction – needless to say I donated mine to Peter! The wine was more expensive than the menu, but so what??!
We have packed the bikes – hurray! – ready to move off quite early tomorrow and the aire we are currently using is filling up for the weekend, so no doubt our space will soon be filled tomorrow.
We’ve checked up on the otters and all three were out enjoying the last rays of the sun before it moved off the riverbank tonight. I had a horrible feeling that they might be rats after all this, but Peter assures me they aren’t – must look it up when I get back, not sure if he’s just humouring me….
We intend to spend some time in La Rochelle tomorrow on the way to Ile d’Oleron and from there continue down the west coast. It looks as if we are following Peter’s “European coastline anti-clockwise” idea even though we did not plan to stick to it religiously, but once we reach Biarritz we will head inland and north, making our way up to the Loire to explore a few chateaux and meet up with Lynn and Irvin.