Cheverney to Ile de Ré
IN WHICH GUEST BLOGGER "MRS SNAIL" HEADS FOR THE ILE DE RE:So, on the sixth morning, we departed Camping Les Saules and headed west for Ile de Ré in extreme wind and heavy rain. A journey of approx 200 miles
As we crossed the beautiful bridge over the Atlantic from La Rochelle we could see golden sand on both sides of the island and a welcome brightening of the sky.
Travelling down through France, the peages which had previously accepted our pre-loaded Travelex Cash Passport (a pre-paid MasterCard) stopped accepting it. Thank goodness, therefore that we’d had the foresight to also carry a Visa card, which was accepted. So it is a good idea to have a least 2 different credit cards with you just in case.
We had nothing booked on the Ile de Re. Mr Snail had picked the campsite - La Grainetiere, Route de Saint-Martin, F- 17630, La Flotte from our ASCI book (see earlier blog for details) as our first base. This made our pitch cheaper, so the saving we made using this card over the full pitch price covered our joining the scheme. It was chosen because it was near the town of La Flotte and had lots of level cycle paths nearby.
Another delightful lady manned Reception and her English was considerably better than my French. We wanted flexibility – maybe 4 or 5 nights. “No problem, just come and pay the day before you want to leave”. Most campsite receptions, like most of France, are shut for lunch between midday and 15:00 hrs. Arriving before noon was not a problem (unlike many campsites in the UK).
The site’s warm swimming pool was used by the Snails every day. The site had a café, bar, wi-fi in reception at a reasonable charge, and freshly baked bread and croissants.
The unisex toilet/shower facilities were extremely clean and warm because there was a door! Hurray. There were the usual sinks for pot and food prep and interestingly one specifically for washing fish and seafood. How unusual. However, the Ile de R é has an abundance of fresh seafood so this facility was well used, with queues on occasions!
The site had huge trees to provide shade, for which we were very glad; the pitches were not very clearly marked. But once a lady who was to become our neighbour showed us the little concrete domes in the ground we could see where we had to be.
NB: Bridge toll was 9 Euros for a motorhome, increasing to 16 Euros in June 09 for the summer season.
As we crossed the beautiful bridge over the Atlantic from La Rochelle we could see golden sand on both sides of the island and a welcome brightening of the sky.
Travelling down through France, the peages which had previously accepted our pre-loaded Travelex Cash Passport (a pre-paid MasterCard) stopped accepting it. Thank goodness, therefore that we’d had the foresight to also carry a Visa card, which was accepted. So it is a good idea to have a least 2 different credit cards with you just in case.
We had nothing booked on the Ile de Re. Mr Snail had picked the campsite - La Grainetiere, Route de Saint-Martin, F- 17630, La Flotte from our ASCI book (see earlier blog for details) as our first base. This made our pitch cheaper, so the saving we made using this card over the full pitch price covered our joining the scheme. It was chosen because it was near the town of La Flotte and had lots of level cycle paths nearby.
Another delightful lady manned Reception and her English was considerably better than my French. We wanted flexibility – maybe 4 or 5 nights. “No problem, just come and pay the day before you want to leave”. Most campsite receptions, like most of France, are shut for lunch between midday and 15:00 hrs. Arriving before noon was not a problem (unlike many campsites in the UK).
The site’s warm swimming pool was used by the Snails every day. The site had a café, bar, wi-fi in reception at a reasonable charge, and freshly baked bread and croissants.
The unisex toilet/shower facilities were extremely clean and warm because there was a door! Hurray. There were the usual sinks for pot and food prep and interestingly one specifically for washing fish and seafood. How unusual. However, the Ile de R é has an abundance of fresh seafood so this facility was well used, with queues on occasions!
The site had huge trees to provide shade, for which we were very glad; the pitches were not very clearly marked. But once a lady who was to become our neighbour showed us the little concrete domes in the ground we could see where we had to be.
NB: Bridge toll was 9 Euros for a motorhome, increasing to 16 Euros in June 09 for the summer season.
Image above: La Grainetiere Campsite, Ile de Ré
Copyright AvailalbePitch.com 2009
Labels: Motorhome to France
posted by AvailablePitch.com at
08:20
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