A heavy frost on the ground this morning which was a bit of a surprise but that soon melted as the sun came up. We took a stroll around the village of Lussac this morning, nothing of particular interest just a small working village surrounded by vines as far as the eye could see, before heading off a bit further north.

We encountered quite a bit of fog / low lying mist as we drove on mostly minor roads for the first hour or so of our journey until the sun broke through and followed us most of the way to the Ile de Re, an island linked by a long bridge from La Rochelle….

As soon as we arrived on the island we found parking and set off for a bit of fresh sea air along Plage de Sablanceaux….

Around the corner to the kite karting section of Plage Sud de Rivedoux-Plage….

And beyond….

At which point we crossed over to the other side of the narrow island and walked back along Plage Nord…

As we are loosing the light so much earlier these days and time is cracking on, we decided to head to our Aire for the night on almost the furthest point of the island in the small village of St Clement-des-Baleines – tomorrow we shall work our way back down the island catching as many of these rather splendid sandy beaches as we can 🤞 for some sunshine.

Thoughts of the day:

• Every vineyard we passed was referred to as Chateau this and that, but I didn’t see any actual Chateaux – is it a case of ‘a man’s home is his castle’? And Chateau…. makes for a better wine label?
• Driving a few miles as we have this last few days, I have noticed that many properties appear externally to be in quite a poor state of repair, they don’t look unloved just lived in – shabby chic?

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 141
• Miles walked – 4
• Beaches – 3
• Aire – £18.81 EHU (very expensive and nothing special – location?)