We spend the morning in La Rochelle, in the old quarter called ‘Le Quartier de la Chaine’ which in the 13th century would have been bustling with noisy and drunken sailors and full of insalubrious inns and cabarets. The ‘chaine’ referred to the chain that was stretched between the towers at night, says the information poster on the main square, the Cours des Dames, rather frustratingly without further explanation. The poster also says that with the development of the fishing industry in the 19th century, the Bretons, especially from the Isle of Groix, moved in in large numbers, mistakenly giving the place the nickname of the ‘Greek Quarter’.
Cours des Dames, La Rochelle.
Le Quartier de la Chaine, La Rochellle.
It’s easy to see the town’s appeal and easy elegance, with its smart town houses, well-tended gardens, cycle-lanes and yellow bikes and up-market restaurants, especially around the area of the Rue Saint Jean du Perot.
Rue Saint Jean du Perot, La Rochelle.
Archway leading to Cours des Dames, La Rochelle.
We decide to stop for a coffee and a sandwich and realize once again how hard it is in France to find a place at lunchtime that will serve anything other than a full ‘formule’ lunch. What if you don’t want a copious 3-course lunch, especially if you’ve only had your porridge at 10 o’clock? We do eventually find a place near a statue of Eugene Fromentin, the 19th century writer and painter from La Rochelle known for his romantic depictions of the Orient.
Statue of Eugene Fromentin, writer and artist from La Rochelle known for his Romantic depictions of the Orient.
Now in ordering coffee, it’s important to know what to ask for. If you ask for a café, you basically get an espresso. If you want an Americano, you ask for an ‘allonge’, the equivalent of a ‘lungo’ in Italian – that is, an espresso that is ‘lengthened’ with extra hot water. However, this may not be ‘allonge’ enough, as is the case with Judith, so additional hot water should be asked for on the side. A ‘grand café’ is a double strength coffee in a bigger cup. A ‘petit crème’ is an espresso with hot milk and a ‘grand crème’ is a grand café with milk. I usually ask for a normal allonge to avoid the excessive caffeine in a grand café but invariably end up ordering a second one so I might as well have had a grand café in the first place.
A ‘cafe allonge’ – the nearest thing to an Americano.
We take a look at the headlines in the local ‘Sud Ouest’ newspaper in the café. “Ban on use of pesticides in cities as from 2017” (seems to refer to their use just in cities rather than in agriculture). “FIFA: how to manage it post-Blatter” (accompanied by a cartoon which asks “who can replace Blatter” and gives a choice of a pair of underpants, a lamp, a leek and a garden gnome!). And most interestingly, a piece about the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, saying it will be the biggest re-enactment of any battle ever staged and that Frenchmen will be among the 5,000 carefully-selected mock combatants on the 18-21 June. The piece claims that “the disaster of Waterloo in no way diminished the prestige of the Emperor and 200 years later, Napoleon still remains the master of the site, much more so than Wellington”.
“Who to replace Sepp Blatter?”
We drive across the Charente Maritime, past Rochefort, Saintes and Cognac (which we would have liked to stop at but decide to leave perhaps for the way back), down the Aquitaine and find a charming quiet campsite in Montpon-Menesterol on the river Ile which is a tributary of the great Dordogne. Menesterol was apparently the capital of Aquitaine but is now little more than a village which was so quiet when we arrived we had trouble finding somewhere open that served dinner. The campsite itself though – the Cigaline – was absolutely lovely and our favourite so far, just next to the river.
The village of Archiac.
The 12th century church at Chillac (built before the hundred years’ war) and chateau behind it.
The Chateau at Chillac – “attention au chien”.
Arrival at the charming La Cigaline campsite in Menesterol, greeted by a glass of dry Rose from Bergerac.
Typical countryside in the area.
Travels with our van 
Hi Flavio and Judith–Enjoying the blog very much! Please add some details about what you are eating…you told us about charming cafes and good wine and how to order coffee…but are you really in a McDonald’s?
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Inspiring!
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Interesting to read about the chain at La Rochelle. I guess it was to repel the British during the Hundred Years War, as a similar one was strung across the River Dart at Dartmouth in the late 1300s to repel the dastardly French!
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Dear Gill, really lovely to hear from you and thanks very much for your interest and support, which is appreciated and badly needed as it can get a bit tough at times! We overdid it a bit in Granada two days ago and have had to book into a last-minute cheap deal hotel in Seville to recover, which isn’t a bad place to do it in I suppose. Hope you and Alan and family are very well and we do appreciate your support once again. Adios for now. Lol, F&J
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Hola, nice to hear from you, too. Really enjoying reading your blog. The Alhambra’s lovely, isn’t it? Have you been to the Alcazar in Seville yet? You’ll like that, too. And then I’m looking forward to hearing about Portugal as I’ve never been there. It’ll be interesting to see how far the linguistic threads can be stretched. We’re in the depths of winter here, frosty nights but bright, sunny days that make you want to get rugged up and go outside. Ten more days here, then ten days in the UK, before returning for the start of another school term. While we’re in England, Laura and family are going to Bali. Is Simon still there?
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Dear Gill – sorry to have taken so long to respond. Thanks very much for your encouraging words – badly needed as it’s tough to keep going with the blog sometimes! It doesn’t look like any of the other ex-Macmillan people inc Chris, Alison or Dot etc are following, which is a bit surprising as they seemed so keen to be kept informed. You will have seen from our subsequent posts that though we went to Seville, sadly we were too whacked out to do it justice and didn’t therefore see the Alcazar Palace. It would have been interesting to see a place built by a slightly decadent Muslim ‘poet-king’ before he was ousted by the strict Almohabids! Portugal is absolutely lovely. We’ve tried to avoid the more popular tourist resorts and are now in a remote place in the mountains in the north. (We’re a bit behind with the blog and have yet to write about Lisbon.) Off to Porto today after which we might visit a little town called Chavez which was founded by one of the Flavien Emperors and where anyone who comes from there is referred to as a Flavien! Then next stop should be Santiago de Compostella.
Hard to think you’re in the depths of winter – didn’t think you got that in Australia! Hope everything is going well. Simon has just left Lombok, Indonesia and moved back to the UK ready to do a post-grad course at Cork University in Ireland in September. Hope Laura and family have a good time in Bali and if she needs any advice about anything please let us know and we’ll relay it to Simon – he’d be more than happy to help. Lots of love, F.
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Oh! Cork sounds excellent. I’ve heard it’s a really nice place (although very little surf, I imagine!) and Simon will be SO much closer to home. You must both be very pleased. What’s the post-grad course?
My niece has just spent a few months as an au pair in Galicia, just outside Santiago, but as luck would have it, has just left and moved on to Camp America before going to uni in the autumn. She enjoyed her stay in Santiago but was a little disconcerted to find the local Spanish bore little resemblance to the Castilian she knew.
Must visit Portugal! It’s on my list for when our time is our own!
Hope your back is better. Have a good time with the other Flaviens. Does Judith now get to go to Judea?
I heard from Kathryn the other day – she said she and kids are coping ‘through necessity’. Apparently she’s meeting Alison for dinner next week. Otherwise, I have no Macnews to impart. Are you having withdrawal symptoms? Or basking in profound relief?
Keep blogging,
Gill
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Hi Gill and sorry once again for this late reply. Simon’s course in Cork is a post grad course in Sports Psychology. It fits in well with the work he’s been doing in Indonesia and gives him an opportunity to deepen his theoretical knowledge before resuming his projects.
I’m amazed your niece had trouble with the local Spanish spoken in Galicia. Galician itself is quite different so it can’t have been that they were speaking and in any case I think it’s rarely spoken now. I hope she enjoys Camp America and wish her the best of luck at uni. Wasn’t it that long ago you left Macmillan to baby-sit? How time flies!
My back has been better – thanks very much for your concern. The weather is starting to get seriously hot now and I’m sure at least that’s better for it and the joints!
Thanks for the update on Kathryn. Im glad she’s keeping in touch with Alison for some support. I’m sure she’ll have lots of other friends who will do the same.
Re other Mac news, i heard through the grapevine that Jo Greig may finally be leaving soon. What a blow to the company that will be.
No, no withdrawal symptoms. It really was the right time for me. I’ve had a couple of offers of freelance consultancy work in the autumn – we’ll see.
Re the blog, i think it’s getting a bit long and repetitive. A couple of people have said it just makes them feel envious and is bad for the soul so they’ve stopped. One friend said he wanted more drama – i.e. more things going wrong etc. Perhaps we should stage-manage a few near disasters? 🙂
All the best,
Flavio
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