Well the weather changed overnight. it had rained and was not very warm on the morning. First thing I went over to reception to get a code for internet connection, it was €10 for five hours use. Last year it had been €20 for fifteen hours a much better deal. We had good internet reception but I had not been told how to disconnect, so I had to rush back over to find out, it was on the receipt but in French of course.
Seeing as it was overcast, we made a picnic and sett off for a drive. If it was raining we would just have a drive, if it was fine we planned to walk around the town walls of Brouage. Borouge is one of the 37 Réseau des grands sites de France (The Grands Sites de France network), so we thought it well worth a visit.
When we arrived it wasn't raining, so we parked up at the car park just inside the Citadel walls and set off to walk counterclockwise around the walls. I took too many photos as we walked but here are just a couple to start with.
Parts of the walk were cold and breezy, we came down from the walls twice, once to look at the ice house and again at the half way point where there is a hole cut in the walls for the road to pass through. At the half way point we looked in a couple of shops before getting back up on the wall to continue the walk.
We continued back to where we started, it was about one and a half miles walk altogether round the walls from start to finish. There were picnic tables where we were parked but they were all in use by French families. We found a bench just opposite the car park to sit on to have our food.
After lunch and with the sun now shining, we walked through the town following the main road to the gate where we came down on the wall walk. Most of the shops were now closed for the afternoon, as they often do in France, so we got back in the car and headed to the Île d'Oléron.
We made straight for Le Château d'Oléron, parked by the harbour and set off into the centre. We walked through the brightly coloured huts that are a mix of fisherman's shacks, shops and bars.
On the way in I looked into a bar/restaurant, just to see what it was like for future reference, a girl followed me out of the bar and called me back. She wanted to say there were open and we could just have a drink if we wanted, I said we might call back later. I found this to be very unusual, most times you have to wait to get noticed, I figured that business was slow.
In the centre of town everywhere was closed again but I suppose it was a Sunday. We called into the bar I had looked in on the way into the centre and had a beer in the sun.
Refreshed, we looked in most of the arty type shops and studios that were open down by the harbour and most of them were open. We looked around the small fort, which was also an art studio and had a large metal mosquito on the ramparts.
We then walked back towards the car, watched one of the mussel boats come in and remove the mussel from the contraptions the collect them in. Then headed back to the campsite for a spot of sunbathing.
About four in the morning I was awoken by a loud humming noise again and thought not again (see Day One). Dot suggested that it could be the fridge buzzing, this had been a problem in mobilehomes several times previously and we had cured it by turning off the fridge overnight. It wasn't the fridge, I got dressed and had a look outside. A motorhome had parked in the the staff car park behind our van and had a generator running and had now started to play music as well. This car park was outside the park on the side road leading to the site from the main road. The noise was too loud to sleep, so I set off to find the night security guy. He was in a little hut on the driveway into the site.
He had no English and I had no French but he agreed to follow me to the car park, when we got there at first he thought it was my motorhome, it took some time to show him our mobile over the fence and and the noisy generator under a table some distance from the motorhome. Eventually he got it and knocked on the motorhome and asked them to turn the generator off, it didn't happen straight away but was off by the time I got back to our van.
Day Eight or Day Ten
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