45 Days in France - 2014: June 1, 2014 – Surlac-sur-Mer – Verdun-sur-Mer – Royan – Rochefort – Les Bournais in Loire Valley

Our last morning in Medoc. We had breakfast with Violaine and Patrick and a young couple from Paris. He had a stereotypical twist mustache - how very French - young guy - banker. They both spoke some English and we enjoyed the breakfast conversation. I got “Lesson #3" in French from Violaine. Today we worked on the verb aller – to go!

We bid Violaine and Patrick a fond goodbye and headed out north to Surlac-sur-Mer, which had been recommended by Violaine. Surlac-sur-Mer was our favorite coast city of all so far. It was beautiful and they were having a fair in the town and lots of people were out and in “old French” costumes.

A huge line of old vintage cars in Surlac-sur-Mer. This was my favorite.

Don't we need one of these in Ft Lauderdale?

The locals were all dressed up in vintage dress - I asked this lady in French to let me take her picture and she understood and was very pleased. This was neat as people were dressed like this all over the town.

They had a horse ring set up in front of the church for exhibitions so the pictures of the church itself weren't what I expected. We didn’t wait for the horse show but I'll bet that was neat too. The church was the attraction for us to see but the city was charming. The church used to be a monastery years ago, but it was abandoned and the church was covered in sand since this city is right on the ocean. The floor of the church is about 15 feet below the outside ground. They were just starting Sunday services so we didn’t go in but looked from the front door. The town was great – very clean and an absolutely beautiful, wide, sandy beach.

The "underground church" in Surlac-sur-Mer

From the front door looking about 15 feet down into the cathedral in Surlac-sur-Mer

Beautiful wide sandy beach in Surlac-sur-Mer

A quaint, beautiful coastal town - Surlac-sur-Mer

We walked around, and I bought some of the good coated nuts at a stand and then we left and leaded to the ferry that will take us across the mouth of the Gironde River to Royan.

The ferry was very efficient and packed. We thought we were there early but we were one of the last cars to get on. Tim was fretting that “we won’t make it” and I told him to just relax. They wouldn’t have sold us a ticket and let us in line if we weren’t going to be able to get on. We got on with room to spare!

The ferry from Verdun-sur-Mer to Royan

Whew - we made it - up on deck looking back at the beaches at Verdun-sur-Mer

Looking ahead to Royan - about a 20 minute crossing - very efficient

The ride over was only about 20 minutes. We arrived in Royan and they unloaded the ferry very quickly. We drove off and set James on the GPS for our next destination – Rochefort (as in the cheese). We arrived in Rochefort about 1 and decided to have lunch at Le Galion, a restaurant just outside the exhibit for L’Hermione – the rebuild of the ship Lafayette took to America.

Lunch was great – Tim had a HUGE bowls of mussels and fries – I had grilled salmon and ile flottante. Yum. We had only ½ bottle of wine since we’ll be driving later to the Loire Region.

Tim with his HUGE pot of mussels in "rochefort sauce". They were yummy!

We bought tickets to see L’Hermione and it was really cool. L’Hermione is a replica of the ship the Marquis de Lafayette took to America to provide support to the people of America who were seeking independence from England. The replica will sail to Boston in the summer of 2015. It was very interesting how they made it.

The tall ship L'Hermione - a replica of a 1790's sailing ship in Rochefort, France

Lots of cannons on board - this ship helped the young Americans wine the Revolutionary War

The center of the ship on L'Hermione

On board L'Hermione in Rochefort, France

The "small" cannons on board L'Hermione

Beautiful ship L'Hermione

The back of L'Hermione

Close up of the back of the ship - so colorful

We got in the car and headed north to the next B&B – Les Bournais – in Theneuil, between Chinon and Saint Maure-de-Touraine. It is just outside L’ile Bouchard. The trip from Rochefort was 2 ½ hours and was mostly peage highways. We had some of the usual “this way” – “NO – this way”, but we got to the highway and settled down. Oh, this wonderful GPS! Genevieve has counseled me to open the roof, push the button, and "eject" the GPS - poor James!

We arrived at Les Bournais - a wonderful enclave in the country outside of L'ile Bouchard. Florence and Philippe are very gracious, helpful and friendly. We have quite a wonderful complex - our own stand-alone living quarters with living room, kitchen, bathroom with laundry, dressing room, bedroom, and private patio looking out at the fields. So quiet here.

We have been traveling the last 2 days so we decided to stay in tonight. Emilie was so thoughtful and brought lots of great things to eat, homemade pate, a baguette, other goodies in the refrigerator, wine, and dessert. We just vegged out and enjoyed the quiet time. Wine (2 bottles) on the patio and dinner before the sun set. There were chickens in the field next door and some beautiful horses grazing in the distance. The lavender is starting to bloom here too and it is beautiful. It's peaceful and beautiful here and so relaxing. Just what we needed.