Back home via the Vendee and Ariege

We arrived at Xavier's house in Brem-sur-Mer towards the late afternoon. It's a pretty nice place, located by the Vendee seaside, just  10 km away from the biggest seaside resort in the department. The Vendee is one of the biggest most popular places in the West of France for a beach vacation - and why not ? The sand beaches are very nice indeed, and there are good tourist facilities (we came here for a week of camping a couple of years ago and had a great time).

We weren't particularly energetic on the day of our arrival, we just hang out at the house and had an absolutely delicious shellfish pasta. Bravo, Xavier! In the evening I had a go at playing Palets with Xavier (it's a traditional game from the Vendee - a bit like petanque except that it's played by throwing small metal "pellets" on an iron board). It was all good fun, even if I did loose miserably (we also lost quite a few playing pieces in the garden!). I continued making a fool of myself with Xavier's Playstation 3, playing some "very sophisticated" first-person shooter.

The next day, we decided to get all sporty and headed off to the Brem-sur-Mer seaside with Joel and Francoise for a hike (Xavier decided to have a lie-in). It was fantastic, actually, with a rocky seaside reminiscent of Brittany. Not at all like the long stretches of sandy beaches we'd seen during our last visit to the Vendee. We had a great time walking along the cliffs - thankfully the sun also made an appearance.

In the afternoon, me and Mathilde decided to continue being all sporty, and cycle down to Les Sables-d'Olonne. After a bit of mechanical problems, involving changing the inner tube on one of the bikes, off we went. Our delight with the Vendee continued, the footpatch between Brem-sur-Mer and Les Sables really is a lot of fun, especially that part that cuts through Les Salines - salt marches where salt was commercially extracted. A very picturesque area, and just perfect for cycling! The coastline between the salines and Les Sables is very pretty too.

We arrived in Les Sables in the later afternoon, after our energetic & scenic bike ride. Locking up our bikes, we had a short walk around. Not really my favourite stop on the trip. It's got all the characteristics that I don't like about touristy seaside towns. There are some pretty historic bits to the town, but what stuck foremost in our minds was the ultra-developed seaside with its tourist trap restaurants and the ridiculously packed beaches. Not my kind of place this time of year - probably a nice enough place off-season though.

We took the same route back to Brem - enjoying the same fantastic landscapes - but this time in the nice evening sun - even prettier, I daresay. Unfortunately, I had a puncture a few kilometres from Brem (the tire we'd changed earlier, how unlucky is that, or how heavy am I?)! So it took us a bit longer than planned getting back (even if Francoise kindly picked us up in the end!

In the evening some friends of Xavier came over for dinner - it all lasted well into the small hours again I'm afraid. I had way too much Trousepinette (the local apertif - which apparently only the tourists drink), beer, wine, and some rather tasty digestifs. That did not bode well for the next day - when we had a rather long drive ahead of us.

After our goodbyes to Xavier, Joel & Francoise (well, Xavier was actually sleeping when we left), and many thanks for the fantastic stay we'd had in La Rochelle and Brem-sur-Mer, it was time to hit the road. We drove towards our destination with few interruptions - only stopping near Bordeaux for a nice lunch - and arrived at our hotel in the early evening - located near the town of Mirepoix in the Ariege department (near the Pyrenees).

The hotel was certainly fantastically located, with a great view towards the Pyrenees - a most charming place ran by a very friendly English chap (who, somewhat unusually, spoke an excellent French). We didn't linger long at the hotel, but rather headed off to explore Mirepoix. Turned out Mirepoix is pretty much the perfect destination for an evening's stay - it's a very cute little medieval town, compact enough to be comfortably explored in a couple of hours, but big enough to have a nice selection of restaurants.

It was a touristy place, but nothing like Les Sables from yesterday - the tourism here is more geared towards mountaineering, hiking and other outdoors activities, which changes the aspect of the place totally. We dined at a nice little restaurant at the main square, very much enjoying it. (I had duck again!)

The next day, after a solid English breakfast (ah, what memories it brought back...), it was time to hit the last stretch of road back home. We did decide to have a short walk around the hotel before hitting the road - would've been a shame not to, since a hiking path passes just by the hotel. Very nice views from up there, across fields of sunflowers, towards the Pyrenees. I could well imaging making another stopover here, and maybe do a bit more hiking.

That brought an end to a very eventful roadtrip across France. It just goes to show what a diverse and interesting country France is, there's just something to see, eat or explore in just about every corner of this country that I have "adopted".