Our second adventure by bike saw us heading out to the Loix peninsula. It’s almost entirely surrounded by tidal waters and is joined to the rest of the island by a couple of causeways. The locals sometimes describe the Île de Ré as being comprised of four ‘islands’ so it felt like quite an adventure as we made our way across the causeways…
Having looked at a couple of salt sellers on our previous ride, Mrs B stopped to buy some at one which had a good range on offer, with some interesting information boards…
...with a salutory reminder of what such a salty environment can do your bike if not maintained…
...with the chap that produced the salt busy working the pans in the background…
Working up an appetite as we headed towards Loix, we decided that we should stop at a small oyster shack to recharge…
...enjoying a delicious seafood platter and local bio rosé…
...before heading off again to see the much vaunted and sheltered ‘swimming’ bay on the Grouin peninsula (we preferred our own stretch!)…
Heading back towards the route home, Mrs B discovered this artisan herb/teas and essential oil producer, Les Aromatiques de Ré...
And her excitement levels increased exponentially when she discovered that he distilled ‘immortelle’ – an essential oil she last bought when we were on Corsica! It’s available in the UK (at great expense) but always better when you can get it direct from the producer, and even better when it’ organic, as this was. And the smell from the plants growing outside the workshop was divine! But… he’d sold out, and the next batch wouldn’t be ready for a couple of days... So we left, hoping that we would be able to work a re-visit in before we left the island…
Retracing our route back across the causeways, Mr B was reminded of Shoreham lock gates when we had to wait for a seeming endless procession of cyclists to cross this raised wooden section…
...where we waited for a chance to take a picture with no-one on it, but gave up!
Making the decision about when would be best to leave the island was not easy – it really was starting to feel like another one of those places we can just stay for ages… but we could see that the weather was due to change, so made the most of our time left in good weather to perfect our beach skills, and being able to eat outdoors…
...with that ring around the moon letting us know the weather was changing...and the sun was setting on our idyllic summer-style beach life…
With just one day left on the island, we made the most of the dull but dry weather and headed off in Evie to the far north of the island, the lighthouses at Phare des Baleines, so named because of the frequent (and unexplained to this day), beaching of whales there over the centuries. Luckily, the most recent was in 1922!
We are frequently drawn to these ‘end of the world’ type places and this didn’t disappoint. Although we decided to pass on the tour up the ‘modern’ 1854 tower…
...or the older Vauban era (1682) one…
...we did however, at last, manage to sample ‘moules au curry’ – famous in the La Rochelle area and something we had aimed to try on our ‘not La Rochelle’ trip where Mr B had us 40 miles up the coast in error…
We always feel pretty full after moules et frîtes, so we took a stroll around the coastal path...
where we saw a beach that was used in the D-Day landing film, The Longest Day...
...and where, in spite of Mr B’s nonchalant pose, we could plainly see that the much talked about tail of a hurricane/storm Amy was building out to sea…
Heading back home via the essential oils producer (of course!) we packed everything down ready to depart the next morning. And we were glad we had got everything indoors as the rains and strong winds arrived with a vengeance that night. Even though we were protected and in the lee of the dunes, the howling wind did little to help us sleep.
And we were glad of those sand ‘tapis’ as we drove off the much wetter site the next morning! Knowing only that we were heading north to the Breizh/Normandie coast, and grateful that on the journey across the 3 kilometre bridge from the island back to La Rochelle we only experienced moderate buffeting, as the waves thrashed beneath us and the bridge stays sang an eerie departure song, we plotted a route north that would avoid the pitfalls we had experienced on the way south, and we gave Marans a wide berth!
With a lot of the south of the island unexplored, we have a sneaking suspicion we may well be back to the Île de Ré...
S&J
07.10.25
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