Had an easy day on the 7th, rested in morning then travelled to La Rochelle by TGV train (top speed about 300km/hr), then bus over the 3km bridge to Ile de Re where we are staying with Matt and Estelle and little Artur at Matt's mums place in La Couarde, a small village on the southern side of the island right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.The island is a very popular summer retreat for the French, but isn't overly commercial which was perfect.

Now, we had a full on day today (Monday) so apologies for the long post.
We started the day with a traditional French breakfast of croissants, baguettes, and 4 quarters bread (qtr of butter, eggs, sugar, flour) and some tea served in a bowl! Yep, that's right folks "in a bowl". So we're all sitting at the table about to start when I suggest that I grab some tea cups for the tea, when Matt says, "no need, that what the bowls are for". Now I'm thinking this is a setup by Matt to get even for all those times I've managed to take the Mickey out of him, so I'm a bit dubious. In French custom, it is polite to wait until the host begins a meal, which I thought was a particularly good idea given the circumstances. After watching Matt and Estelle pour there bowl of tea and begin drinking, i figured it was safe to partake. It turns out that bowls are only used in the mornings and that tea later in the day is had in a cup - a little odd, but hey it was good to experience a new cultural aspect of France.

After breaky, we hired some bikes and all went cycling which was heaps of fun. The island has loads of cycle ways, and I swear there were heaps more people riding bikes than I saw cars on the road. One of the produces from the island is salt. We rode along side of some of the salt beds and Matt explained the process of harvesting the salt - very interesting. We stopped at a salt farm and purchased some naturally harvested salt crystals and fine table salt, and the island specialty of Caramel fleur de sel which is a salted Carmel sweet. Now, I'm not a caramel fan, but I have to say this sweet was particularly good.

We pushed on to the small village of Ars en Re where we had lunch and saw a church (templars) that was first built in the 1000's in the roman style, then extended in the 1400' in the gothic style, and has been keep in that original condition since - awesome history.

After lunch we road back home having completed about 20km's of riding on a 30 deg day. No major incidents to report, other than Shirley (who hasnt ridden a bike in 20years) riding on the left side of the cycle way and almost having a head-on with a local, who let her know so in their best French! Matt did well riding with Artur (4months old) in a front pack pouch the whole time.
So while the girls rested, Matt, Henry and I returned the bikes and had some gelato, hand made by the local shop vendor - really hit the spot!

In the afternoon, we headed for St Martin, a village on the north side on the sea. The village was set inside a fortress with battlements, a moat and draw bridge. The village was dead cute, with fishing boats, yachts, and lots of little shops and an old church of course. We we able to climb up the inside of the church steeple. Now this was a serious challenge with the OH&S risk meter right off the scales!

We walked up the first layer - stone spiral staircase, then up 2 flights of steep rickety timber stairs only wide enough just for one person, right past the church bell where there was a sign not to be there when the bell tolls only problem was we had no idea when it would toll next....... Having got to the top, we were assaulted by a 360 deg view of the village, much of the island and back across to the continent - wow! The climb was well worth it.

To end the day, we all met up with Matt's mum, her partner Marc and Paul and Julie, who were staying with their grandma, and had dinner out at the Phare des Baleines ( translates to Whale Lighthouse) which is a major lighthouse on the island. We had a great time chatting, some in English some in French and some frenglish with Matt doing a great job translating all of them.

Tomorrow we head to Bordeaux for a brief stopover on our way to Barcelona.