Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux Wine Country
We awoke in our free Aire on a grey drizzly sunday morning, after showers and breakfast we got the van locked down and hung the plant pot under the roof fan to get some light. Coats and scarves on we walked to the train station handily only 5 minutes away and experienced our first french rail ticket machine. This took far too long to work out but we got there eventually and for the "extortionate" sum of €6 we were on our 20 minute train into Nantes.
We spent the morning following another Lonely Planet guided walking tour around the main highlights of the city that culminated in the Japanese gardens on the Ilse de Versailles. Personally i am a little obessed with japanese gardening, Bonsai in particular. So for me this was a particularly favourite spot resulting in far too many photos and videos of the various features. After eating our packed lunch under one of the covered walkways (to avoid the rain), we headed back toward the centre of the city. A brief stop by the Cathedral which was still closed for repair after a 2020 arson attack left much of the building scorched with lead dust covering far too much of the interior to allow guests inside.
Then onward to the enormous Chateau that once stood on the banks of the river Loire. This was before major works in the 20th century filled in a number of the many braided channels of the Loire that once seperated the areas south of the old city into multiple islands. Now a primarily pedestrianised area with a tram line followed this ancient channel.
We spent the entire afternoon in the musuem of Nantes within the Chateau, a long but very interesting audio tour explained the history of the city from Roman times, through the middle ages, the French revolution and right up to the modern day. A further hour was then spent across the main courtyard in the current exhibition on Chevaliers (Knights). This included a showcase of a private collection of faithfully reproduced arms and armour from the middle ages and the ages of Chivalry in France from which we get much of our mythos surrounding knights in popular culture.
Not wanting to be getting back in the dark, we hot-footed it back to the train station and jumped on another €6 train back to where we were staying. Noodle was fine thankfully, this being the first time we'd left the van unattended so far away, I was a little nervous and kept checking the security cameras. But all was well until the next morning we realised we had actually parked across two spaces and someone had lifted our windscreen wipers in protest. Well, you live and learn, don't assume the other people there when you first arrive are actually parked correctly and do what they are doing!
After two nights here we decided to move on further south for a long day of driving. It would be almost 6 hours of driving today (avoiding motorways and toll roads) so we decided to cut across to the west along the way and visit a once English owned part of France, La Rochelle. After an hour on the road and a breakfast halfway, we arrived in La Rochelle before midday. The better part of the afternoon was then spent wandering the town, the old towers on the banks of the river and having a coffee/chocolat chaud in one of the many cafe's in the old port area. The big thing that occured here was that the sun finally came out and we almost reached double digit temperatures for the first time since before we returned home from Texas back in mid January!
Back at Noodle, the sun shining and filling up the batteries with lovely free solar energy, we fuelled up for the first time since arriving in France and then head on to our overnight stop. Unfortunately to get the most out of La Rochelle and the sunshine, we had left it a bit late and so it was after sunset by the time we arrived at the free aire provided by a vineyard Chateau north of Bordeaux. So we didn't get much spectacle other than a dark tree lined driveway and the realisation that headlight beam deflectors are useless and pretty dangerous in how much light they block! But, this aire felt like a very safe place, welsh motorhomers next to us and a boulangerie a short walk away.
The next morning we were greeted by a sunrise over the vineyard, this being February the vines were obviously not in leaf and it was still a bit grey. But the views out the window were lovely nonetheless, and the big bonus was the temperatures had been fairly mild over night and so the heater hadn't been needed too much.
Heading south fast was definitely turning out to be the right call. Today though was going to be a slower day. Whilst we had originally planned to go into Bordeaux, we were finding it difficult to find somewhere reliable and safe to park in the city or to get a train from. Also, the appetite for more cities was wearing off, we were a bit "urban-ed" out and in need of a slower pace now we'd reached if not sunnier, but warmer climes.
After breakfast then, we moved Noodle round to the other side of our motorhome and campervan neighbours where one had just departed in order to plug in for the first time and get a bit more power in case the sun didn't come out during the day ahead. We weren't going to be driving more than 3 hours and by this point that wouldn't be enough to charge the batteries enough in preparation for the next two nights.
Noodle moved, we then walked through the chateau grounds hoping to buy a bottle as thanks for providing the Aire and facilities. But it all being shut as its February we continued on into the village to grab ourselves a baguette from the Boulangerie. Returning to the van, we unplugged and packed up, drained the grey tank and continued on around Bordeaux wine country.
Passing through Libourne and eventually arriving at Saint Émilion to the east of Bordeaux. Here the sun was finally coming out again, the temperatures were in the upper mid teens and we were wandering through a very wine oriented region of France trying to find lunch. We're being careful not to spend too much on meals out, as we have a budget and don't want to run low on funds before the year is out. However, thats not to say we will never eat out and today was one of those days. We did what you should always do, find the resturaunt with as many locals in as possible. This never fails and we had a lovely lunch, some local wines and myself a Cognac to finish.
We spent the rest of the eary afternoon wandering the streeets of this charming little town overlooking the Dordogne Valley. Then heading back to the Van in the sun, we found we'd gotten a healthy boost of solar power and then Ellen drove us off toward the south east and the coast. A quick food shop in the biggest L'Eclerc we've ever seen (and there are some monsters around France I can tell you) and then onto the most spectacular free aire we have encountered thus far. Nestled beneath the pine trees with the beach not far to walk, we settled in for the night spending the remaining daylight with the main doors open as it was dry and... well I won't say warm, just not cold!
