La Mer, le Canal & les Pyrénées

[Jacques Vert]

Le Marias Poitevin

To the north-east of La Rochelle is the Marais Poitevin, the second largest wetland in France; the Camargue near Arles being the largest. The marias covers approx. 110,000 hectares and stretches from north of La Rochelle to Niort at its eastern end. Originally an immense maritime bay, it progressively silted up and dried leaving a vast wetland. In the middle ages abbeys were constructed and the monks set about building canals and dykes to drain the wetland. Over the centuries the canals were allowed to deteriorate and were subsequently renovated a number of times. Today the wetland supports agriculture, aquaculture and tourism.

About 50 minutes east of La Rochelle towards the eastern end of the marais is the town of Coulon from where you can explore the marais in small punts.

The Marais:










Coulon:






Time for lunch:






After a late lunch we explored the town for a while and then, being Friday evening, we went to the local market where there were fast-food stalls, various produce stalls and, of course a bar:






The young chap at the tourist office told us there was live music at the market and it was free. The name of the band was "Hubert Hits". As he explained, the french rarely pronouce the "h", nor the "t" at the end of a word. So the correct pronunciation is "Uber Eats".

Unfortunately, their musical skills didn't match their humour so we left early.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Périgny

Périgny is a municipality adjacent to La Rochelle and they were hosting an open air festival from 13 July to 14 August. Lots of activities for the residents and visitors, and all for free. The day after our visit to Coulon they held an open air “ball”. As it was free we just had to go along. It promised live world music, a lantern parade and a light and fire show; what more could one ask for?

It turned out to be a quite casual, family affair with fast-food stalls, an excellent band and, of course, a bar.




The band played for three hours with only one short break. Not only that, but they were enjoying themselves and therefore everyone was also having fun...






There were plenty of food options:










And the bar was doing good business:




As the sun started going down people were preparing for the lantern parade and the band kept playing:




The sun set around 10-30PM and the band led everyone on a circuit of a large park adjacent to the square in the above photos. This took about half an hour with the band playing non-stop the whole time and everyone following along behind. What was that story about the pied piper? We ended up in a small clearing where we were treated to the light and fire display; these guys were superb...











All in all a great evening and all for free. A great armosphere, excellent music, good food at reasonable prices; great work by the local council.

We enjoyed the night so much that we returned the following week when they had a band playing music from the 60's & 70's. Similar night, just with a different band. Another great night.

 

[Bindibuys]

Late entry to this TR.
Thanks again for the heads up about long stay airbnb we discussed over coffee at your home prior to you leaving on this trip.
We have booked a 1 bed apartment in London (Bermondsey) for 7 weeks for next year, with a 40% discount.
Now the dreaded wait for J award seats to open up.

 

[SYD]

Late entry to this TR.
Thanks again for the heads up about long stay airbnb we discussed over coffee at your home prior to you leaving on this trip.
We have booked a 1 bed apartment in London (Bermondsey) for 7 weeks for next year, with a 40% discount.
Now the dreaded wait for J award seats to open up.

Yes, ~30+ days usually triggers the “long stay” threshold and well worth staying an extra day or two if hovering around the 29 day mark! Even if you actually vacated earlier, paying for 30d could be significantly cheaper.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Yes, ~30+ days usually triggers the “long stay” threshold and well worth staying an extra day or two if hovering around the 29 day mark! Even if you actually vacated earlier, paying for 30d could be significantly cheaper.

We have an airBnB ourselves and when setting the price, if you add a "monthly discount", it takes this to be 28 days or more. It's possibe that some hosts could manually adjust this to 30 days (or any other number of days) but in general, if there is a monthly discount, it will trigger at 28 days.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Late entry to this TR.
Thanks again for the heads up about long stay airbnb we discussed over coffee at your home prior to you leaving on this trip.
We have booked a 1 bed apartment in London (Bermondsey) for 7 weeks for next year, with a 40% discount.
Now the dreaded wait for J award seats to open up.

Very pleased to see you were able to make use of that coversation. Being able to share information is what AFF is all about.

I hope that the apartment meets and exceeds your expectations.

 

[FlyingFiona]

It's worth being aware that monthly (or longer) AirBnB stays have become significantly less common in Paris after the government introduced the need for a "mobility lease" in the majority of cases.

All rented properties must be registered with the local council and there is a limit on the number of nights it may be rented unless the owner declares it to be a business (e.g. traditional bed and breakfast), or is renting it for longer than 3 months under the "mobility lease" scheme.

A mobility lease can be anywhere between 1-12 months long, and is only available to renters who fall into the category of: student, professional placement, or vocational training.

There is no filter for properties with a mobility lease so searching for month long stays is, in my experience, a painful, frustrating, and disappointing experience.

 

[Jacques Vert]

It's worth being aware that monthly (or longer) AirBnB stays have become significantly less common in Paris after the government introduced the need for a "mobility lease" in the majority of cases.

All rented properties must be registered with the local council and there is a limit on the number of nights it may be rented unless the owner declares it to be a business (e.g. traditional bed and breakfast), or is renting it for longer than 3 months under the "mobility lease" scheme.

A mobility lease can be anywhere between 1-12 months long, and is only available to renters who fall into the category of: student, professional placement, or vocational training.

There is no filter for properties with a mobility lease so searching for month long stays is, in my experience, a painful, frustrating, and disappointing experience.

Yes, unfortunately many of the large cities around the world have been heading down this path blaming airBnB and similar websites for causing a shortage of properties for rent. It seems to me that it is easlier for politicians to point the finger at short-term rentals rather than to develop policies to increase the supply of housing. But that's a discussion for a different thread.

Fortunately for us there doesn't appear to be any such issues in regional France, at least not that we have noticed so far.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Bastille Day in La Rochelle

In France it’s not called Bastille Day; it’s referred to as la fête nationale française or le 14 juillet. (Yes, I’m still behind with this Trip Report but I am catching up!) We spent the morning at home before heading to the harbour. Being a Sunday and the french nationale day, there were quite a few people about.

That evening was the fifth of the Francofolies concerts adjacent to the harbour with the headline artist being Jean-Michel Jarre, supported by Phoenix, a pianist called Sofiane Pamart and a young female singer Zaho de Sagazan. At 3PM the queue to enter the stadium was around 1km long.

Around 5PM we headed for OUR spot on the foreshore opposite the stadium only to find someone had stolen it, but we managed to get a spot nearby. I was surprised at how many people were pouring onto the foreshores, far more than for Sting on Wednesday night. Zaho opened the show and was excellent, as was Sofiane. People kept pouring in and by 1030PM there would easily have been 20,000 to 30,000 people on the foreshore. I didn’t realise Jarre was still that popular although he does still equally hold the record for the largest audience for a free live concert (estimated at more than 3.5 million in Moscow in 1997).



However, at 1100PM the real reason for the large crowd became obvious as the fireworks started! An excellent show that went for around 20 minutes. Very well done for what is a relatively small city.













Around midnight Jarre came on but by then at least half of the freeloaders had left only leaving around 15,000 to listen to the concert. We stayed for around 40 minutes before heading home. Another enjoyable day/evening at the right price.

 

[drron]

Beautiful pictures of the fireworks.

 

[RooFlyer]

A great demonstration why leisurely, long stays are great to do. Unfortunately not my thing, so I'll just enjoy them here.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Beautiful pictures of the fireworks.

With thanks to +1; she does a great job.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Les Minimes

While there are quite a few pleasure boats moored in the four basins in and around the old harbour, there was still the need for more moorings at La Rochelle. So back in 1972 an additional marina was built on the other side of the entrance channel at Les Minimes. This marina has 4,700 floating berths and is one of the largest in Europe. It’s hard to get a perspective of it from ground level but +1 managed to photograph it from the top of the Lanterne Tower…






There are also lots of dining options in the adjacent village. We had lunch for a very reasonable price; food and wine were both good.

Crispy Goat's Chees Salad:




Prawns with Truffle Mayo:




Fillet Mignon




Crème Brulée




After lunch we took a stroll including checking out the beach…

 

[Jacques Vert]

Châtelaillon-Plage

About 13 km south of La Rochelle (20km by road) is the town of Châtelaillon-Plage. It has a 3km long beach and is a quite a pleasant spot. Unfortunately we were their late afternoon and quite a strong breeze had sprung up, so much so that as we walked along the promenade we occasionally had sand blown into our faces. Also the offshore waters are relatively shallow here so the wind and waves had stirred up the bottom giving the water a brownish, muddy appearance. It looked like a nice place to be on a day when there was little wind. A visit in the morning before the wind gets up would be best.






There are a few food options on the beach...






And just to prove you can never have too many food photos, here are a couple of options from the local pâtisserie:













And if you haven't seen anything you fancy, there's is always the french version of the Bunnings sausage sizzle:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Vivaldi Concert

I saw a poster for a classical music concert, EUR22 per ticket. The concert was being held in the local church about 2 minutes walk up the road from our digs. I haven't been to a classical music concert for years but as we had nothing else panned we decided to go along.

Turns out the church has ecellent accoustics and the group were superb. They started with some Vavaldi and a few other classical composers then finished the show with a few more recent compositions.

One of Freddie's best:

 

[OZDUCK]

Unfortunately I get a message saying - "This Video is Private".

 

[Jacques Vert]

Unfortunately I get a message saying - "This Video is Private".

Sorry; try it again now.

 

[Askance]

Sorry; try it again now.

Still the first one says private

 

[Jacques Vert]

Still the first one says private

OK thanks; apparently the first one breaches copyright. I've deleted it. Shame.

Hopefully you were able to enjoy the second one.

 

[drron]

But the second one really is good.