Bordeaux country

We left the next morning to drive to La Rochelle. We decided to have a decent dog walk on the way so stopped in La Couture, small village in the Marvais Poitevin National Park. The pleasant walk followed the small Le Lay river on country lanes and then through woodland with trees laden with mistletoe. We managed a short stop for a small beer at Lavaud before returning to the van for lunch.

We arrived at La Rochelle mid afternoon and parked in an aire on the outskirts. In the morning we walked the dogs quickly and then walked into town for breakfast. We had a lovely wonder around the Vieux-Port quarter (old town). The three historic towers are impressive. We then walked back along the sea front with the view across to the boats in the harbour.

We then headed south towards Bordeaux. We had a lunch stop at Talmont-sur-Gironde. This is a small fortified village perched on a rocky promontory. The Romanesque Church of St Radegund is impressive and the little streets really pretty. It was amazingly quiet but I am sure in the middle of summer it gets very busy.

From there we headed to our first night in a French Passion site. These are mainly farms and vineyards that let you stay for free - usually in the exchange for buying their produce. We found the vineyard of Domaine Imbert. As we parked a small elderley French lady - Mme Imbert - appeared. She was happy for us to stay but made us move the van as she was concerned about the 'beaucoup de vent'. It did not seem very windy to us! Anyway we repositioned the van and then had a fun tasting of a couple of white wines, a red and a cognac. We didn't bother with the alcohol free wine! We purchased a few bottles and returned to our van for the night.

It is safe to say that it was the windest night we have ever spent in a motorhome. Thought we might get blown away at one point. The dogs were on our bed very early in the morning!!