Blog 07: Island-hopping! Part 1 – Île d’Oléron and Île d’Aix


At last we are saying goodbye to La Rochelle where we’ve spent the winter months.

Here is Astraia (on the right) in our winter berth in the Bassin des Chalutiers opposite the Aquarium. 


… this is the view in the other direction towards the town.


This is the beautiful view of La Rochelle’s famous three towers, the “Three Sisters”, from our winter home in the Bassin des Chalutiers.


A nice picture of a winter sunset from our berth in La Rochelle.

Some maintenance, repairs and cleaning were required before we could set off …


Rubbing down and cleaning the teak rail and deck …

I’m quite pleased with the improvement!

Giving the rubber dinghy a good wash

Here’s Astraia ready to go again and looking quite clean and shiny.

But before we finally leave the area and head further south, we decided to visit the nearby islands of Île d’Aix, Île d’Oléron and Île de Ré.

A final view of the ‘Three Sisters’ of La Rochelle …

… and past the crowded masts of Les Minimes marina as we leave the harbour.

There was just enough wind to get the sails up, but enjoy a glass of ale at the same time!

Looks like I was doing all the hard work!  Here I’m winching in the mainsail.

But I also got some time off J

Île d’Oléron
We spent 2 nights anchored off a beach on the east coast of Île d’Oléron, both evenings producing beautiful sunsets.  

This was sunset on the first evening …

… outdone by this amazing display the following night! 
I walked along this lovely sandy beach to the small seaside town of Boyardville …

… past typical island holiday cottages, including this one with a sailor and cat supposedly looking out of the dormer windows!

I couldn’t find a lot happening in Boyardville.  The busiest stall seemed to be run by a tiger selling tickets for a trip to Fort Boyard, which is actually on the neighbouring island of Île d’Aix!

On the way back I came across this massive beached jellyfish – much bigger than a dinner plate, more the size of a meat platter – ugh!

Water taxi!  Charles collected me from the beach in the inflatable dinghy – you can see Astraia anchored in the background.  Once back on board, we headed over to the island next door, Île d’Aix.

Île d’Aix 
A tiny boomerang-shaped island, Île d’Aix is much smaller than Île d’Oléron. 

It’s here that Napoleon spent his last days on French soil before being exiled to St Helena.
The island was originally a fort and the town still has a feeling of being based on the old military barracks – very orderly and laid out in straight lines!  
Somehow this island isn’t quite so quaint and pretty as some of the others, but it was a bit of a grey day which probably didn’t help – I’m sure this street would look quite different with sunshine and blue skies.

There are some attractive little cottages though

And plenty of bikes for hire!

This is part of Fort Boyard, a 19thcentury Napoleonic sea fort

The bell tower of the Church with hollyhocks which are such a feature of these islands.

The following day we anchored at the other side of Île d’Aix, which is quite different, much more countrified and prettier, and I began to see why people like it so much here.

Pretty sandy coves

Walking and cycle tracks through the woods

Pedal power!  A colourful variety of modes of transport for all ages.

‘Baby Plage’ – a delightful little beach to paddle and swim from – Astraia is anchored in the distance.  

An oyster farm on Pointe de Coudepont – there are always several French people out at low tide beachcombing for mussels and oysters.
A final glimpse through the trees as I head back to Astraia for the night.


 Next stop - Île de Ré ....


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 41: Avoiding the Orcas!

Image
So now we're setting off towards the Mediterranean, calling at a few nice harbours en route. We had a lovely sail along the coast to Mazagón… …where these two ships looked as if they were about to collide, but actually one was going alongside to fuel or supply the other! And we enjoyed super  “posh tapas” at a lively street restaurant called El Brujo, which means The Wizard, the nickname of the chef! It was sort of Masterchef Tapas - delicious and different and beautifully presented! He was certainly a wizard when it came to the strawberry roulade! The next day we enjoyed another super sail to the Bay of Cádiz where we anchored just off Puerto Sherry… …and had dinner in the cockpit with the sun setting behind us. But the wind then quite suddenly got up and was fiercely strong, possibly the Levanter coming from the Mediterranean. Our anchor held overnight, but it was not very pleasant, so the next morning we were lucky enough to find a space at the Real Club Nautico de Puerto Santa ...
Read more

Blog 40: Summer 2024 - Under The Bridge … but only just!

Image
I seem to have ‘fallen by the wayside’ as far as blogging is concerned in the last couple of years! I think it’s partly because the temperature is often just too hot to want to stay inside staring at a computer screen, and partly that the internet connection is sometimes slow or not available at all if we’re out at sea. Anyway, my apologies and I’m going to start again now. I also have a couple of unfinished episodes from last year that I will try and finish off and post later. We arrived back in Lagos, Portugal, at the end of April and moved Astraia a few miles down the coast to Portimão boatyard to do some maintenance and get her bottom painted! Here is Astraia waiting for us in Lagos Marina This is looking back at the town of Lagos as we leave We anchored overnight in Alvor, one of our favourite spots, then headed to Portimão Boatyard where Astraia was lifted out of the water. Here’s Astraia in the boatyard at Portimão. We spent a couple of weeks getting her ready for the season and...
Read more

Blog 32: Our Floating Holiday Cottage on the Algarve!

Image
A combination of Covid travel restrictions and several boat problems, in particular a leak in the fuel tank, have kept us local this year.  We have spent August and September sailing up and down the Algarve coast visiting and re-visiting our favourite spots.  We also hired a car to explore inland a bit.  One advantage of staying local is that we were very convenient for Faro airport which meant all our girls and some of their friends could join us for a holiday, which has been lovely.  We also managed a long weekend in Zürich, which made a great change – very different from Portugal. We have used the time we have been ‘stuck’ here to explore the local area by car, bike and on foot, as well as by boat.  This map shows where we have been We have bought a second folding bike so we both have land-based transport now as well as water-based.   We also hired a car for a week and took the opportunity to explore a little inland and up into the hi...
Read more