La Rochelle

10 - 12 November 2015

La Rochelle is a beautiful seaside town in the Charente-Maritime department of Poitou-Charentes.

To get there, Finn decided we'd hitchhike to Nantes, then use Blablacar from Nantes to La Rochelle. Hitchhiking was a terrible plan. It worked well for us between small towns in the middle of nowhere when we didn't mind which town we ended up in, but this time it took 3 cars, 3 hours and lots of dangerous motorway walking to travel what would have been 1 hour by Blablacar. We met interesting people though, and the third woman very kindly dropped us off at the station on the edge of Nantes where we were meeting our Blablacar ride.

Finn found the perfect rest spot while we waited to cross the train tracks.

We had crêpes at this food truck in a carpark near the station:

Finn had lemon crêpes, then added the sugar that came with his coffee. What a Kiwi.

And when we finally got to La Rochelle we went for a lovely evening walk. Photos are a bit blurry, but I think you'll get the idea.

La Rochelle's impressive train station.

Buildings lit up and reflected in the water near the port.

Street art

The towers (they're basically museums now)

So many French cities have incredible transport restrictions. The lanes from the left: footpath, bikes, buses, footpath. No car lane at all on this road!

Beautiful buildings used for shops.

And during the day...

The port of La Rochelle. You can see the towers on the left.

A beautiful walk we took on the edge of the city.

There are some beautifully sculpted public parks. And this one doesn't have fences and gates to lock people out at night!

This ferry is solar powered - you might be able to see the panels on the roof.

I'm fascinated by conserveries. They're small shops in towns within an hour from the coast, and they sell nothing but tinned fish.

Hey Otago, you're famous in France! A rugby/sports store

And the sign outside the shop.

The temple of the reformed cult (i.e. Protestant church)

We caught a bus to Île de Ré for the afternoon.

Even the baches are made of stone!

Our afternoon walk along the beach.

And a panorama of the beach at Sainte-Marie-de-Ré.

La Rochelle is a lovely coastal city and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting France's West Coast!