Cold but sunny this morning. Porridge for breakfast. This Passion has a service point so even though it's our first night the adage 'do it whenever you can' means we service the van before heading on our way.

We pass alongside some more fields of stunted, black vines before joining the road to La Rochelle.

At St Floeent-des-Bois we stop at a boulangerie for baguettes for lunch and the other side of the town the landscape changes to gentle rolling pastures. Approaching La Rochelle it changes again to the vast flat wetlands of the Marais.

We cross the bridge to Ile de Re in bright sunshine, looking down on the estuary. Small golden beaches lead into the mud of the ebbing tide and white bungalows with pantile rooves hug the shore.

Just after 15:00 we arrive at the aire at Rivedoux Plage, which is noted as having power, but it is turned off until March - disappointed! We have coffee before wandering a mile or so along the beach path to the town.

The sea is receding quickly, exposing the black, man-made reefs of the oyster beds. A pick-up and some tractors and trailers drive across the flats to harvest them. It would make a perfect water colour; brown sand with wet patches and channels reflecting the blue sky. The light is reminiscent of St. Ives light. The top part of the beach is littered with empty, bleached-white oyster shells. Despite the sunshine it's only 6~C and the breeze is bitingly cold. The town is quite attractive even out of season. Obviously most of it is closed, shutters drawn, but amazingly there are roses in a few gardens.

A couple hours later we return to the van and warm up the left-over casserole juice as a bowl of soup. The tide is still going out as the sun turns the sky various shades of pink and purple, and we see lights come on around the harbour as darkness falls, before we shut ourselves in for the evening.