Tag Archives: Port des Barques

Weekends Only

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In Port des Barques, the sun continues to shed blistering rays. In our pitch, staying in the shade, Husband returns to the task of repairing the punctures on my bike by inflating the brand new inner tubes we bought while staying at Saint Michel Chef Chef. A fellow French camper offers help [yet again!]. But the repair is not to be, due to the tubes being of the wrong sort [of course!]. In other words, they don’t fit.

In spite of the heat, we walk together up to the little village to research somewhere for an evening meal and to buy bread and [hopefully] pastries. We draw a blank on both counts, All likely-looking cafes inform us that they don’t do evening meals, except on Fridays and Saturdays. It seems that Port des Barques is simply a weekenders type of place. That’s that then. In addition to this, all the bakery signs lead to closures and the grocery shop has no bread and no pastries.

We venture further into the village and away from the sea, where we do find a co-op! We can get a baguette- but no croissants. Further still, we do actually stumble on a boulangerie! Eureka!

Returning back down the road, we make one last attempt to find an evening meal by looking in on a roadside hotel, where we are firmly told ‘Non!’

Later we pack up the van and set off to Rochefort, which is nearby, to visit the Orange telecoms store because the mobile wifi SIM has run out of data, also to visit Decathlon for yet more inner tubes and to bump up the van’s leisure batteries.

Rochefort is beautiful but we’ve done the sightseeing on a previous visit- when I’d erroneously thought it would be a magnet for cheese lovers until I realised that the iconic, blue cheese hails from Roquefort… Today is too hot to trek around the city so we locate the Orange shop, where the assistant takes some persuading to ‘recharge’ the SIM for us, reluctant to accept my poor French as a reason for my failings as a customer- but eventually he complies.

Decathlon is straightforward. This time we’ve brought the wheel and the inner tube is inserted for us [for a price].

Back on site, we wait until the relative cool of early evening to get a stroll up and along the seafront. Beyond the rocky section there’s a slipway and further round, a beach, busy at 7pm, and a cafe under the trees is doing a swift trade. Continuing on, there’s a couple of ancient canon on the clifftop overlooking the fishing huts but not much else. From here we can see the Isle d’Oleron, where we’ve stayed before. All of the islands off the west coast of France are lovely and all quite different in character.

It’s our last night at Port des Barques. In the morning I wake and notice that the laundry door is closed so I dash over and open it to allow the parent swallows to get in and feed the chicks. I glance up and see their tiny heads bobbing up and down- phew! They are still alive…

For fiction by me, Jane Deans, search for novels: The Conways at Earthsend [an eco-thriller] and The Year of Familiar Strangers [mystery drama]. Visit my website: janedeans.com

Parched in des Barques

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Husband has looked through our ACSI book and found us a site thatis new to us, although we know the area well. The weather has continued to warm up as we travel and is edging into hot, rather than warm.

We cross the Charente at La Roche sur Yon, turn on to smaller roads then head for a small peninsula, driving through some villages until we reach the seaside village of Port des Barques. There’s not a lot to the village, although clearly there’s a big focus on shellfish, judging by the stalls lining the seafront car park. Opposite there’s a row of buildings with maybe two or three bars- that’s about it!

We’ll investigate the bars and places to eat later or tomorrow, but we must go on down through the village and to the other side to get to the site.

The site, ‘La Garenne’, [the warren], is vast. Besides being in the ACSI book it’s also a municipal camp site. These are often good value, ‘no frills’ type sites with good services. La Garenne has been kept tidy but not manicured or planted up. The pitches are huge, most with a combination of sun and shade, which suits us nicely as we need sun for solar power and shade for ourselves. We check in and choose a place on a corner near reception, with a big, dense tree on one side and open on the other. Perfect!

The sea is just across the road, although the beach is rocky rather than sandy. Once we’ve set up [which takes all of 5 minutes including pulling out the awning] we take to the shade. Opposite our pitch there is a mobile kiosk and a fenced off area furnished with tables and chairs- all in the shade of the trees. There is also a menu board. It all looks very promising. We chug down some cold beers. Husband asks, “Do we want to cook anything tonight?” It’s hot and we’ve travelled all day and I don’t need asking twice.

At this pop-up restaurant the menu is simple but perfect for a hot evening. There are also more cold beers! I’m in awe of the two women running it, since there’s a steady flow of diners requiring all sorts of things including ice creams and they are on the go constantly in the draining heat, one taking orders and serving and the other cooking. Cooking!

After eating we sit outside long after dark as it’s far too hot to go in. Up among the branches of the dense conifer on our pitch, huge buzzing insects lurch in and out. After much deliberation I decide they must be cicadas, their wings providing the loud buzz as they blunder around. There are also swallows nesting in the laundry, tiny chicks peering out waiting to be fed.

At around midnight we retire to the interior of the van, where in spite of opening all skylights and windows, blacking out the windscreen with our reflective sheet and using nothing but a sheet, the night passes in a restless, sticky drag of wakefulness. The morning dawns just as hot. We’ve just read that Dr Michael Mosely, media health guru, has died while hiking in the heat of a Greek afternoon. Nevertheless, someone has to trek up to the village for bread. Hmmm…

For fiction by me, Jane Deans, search for novels: The Conways at Earthsend [an eco-thriller] and The Year of Familiar Strangers [mystery drama]. Visit my website: janedeans.com