Niort, Île de Ré and a horror story

Once we had waved off house owners Sandrine and Frederick (and petulant teen son), reeled from the wall paper conglomeration, art and accepted there was to be nowhere comfortable to sit in the house at all, Elaine and I set off for a night walk.  It had been a very very long day..for Elaine and Kath it had started in Rome, and for me, in Oslo.  But the night walk was delightful!  

Elaine

What a pretty little place!  We crossed the river and then the lock, and located the market we would visit in the morning, which was right at the Donjon.  More on that later.

Home again.  Kath’s idea to rearrange the furniture so that we could watch tele was a good one. Once done, and the couch cushions supplemented with the other couch’s cushions and pillows from the top floor bedrooms, we settled in to watch Beef on Netflicks and on a lighter note, Lidia Poët. We ended every night in this way.

The aeropress coffee makers were a great travel idea. It bought us a gentle and easy start to each morning.  The market… a great market!  Oh wow..teeming. Abundance. Opulence.  We bought from many stalls.  I was struck by the pride in the produce and none more apparent than the chicken shop people.  

I was reminded of a day in Cuba when there was knock on the door of my apartment with Gabriel. A woman holding a dead chook by the feet and the head bobbing in the air.  We were delighted to buy it and all present were grateful for the removal of all the bits we didn’t want.  Here at the market in Niort the chicken farmer kindly segregated the bird into roasting and stock making.  The pride of the farmer was justified. The chicken was delicious.  As were the bread, cheese, vegetables, salad, berries, olives, ham, butter, cream…maybe not so the rabbit terrine or the salami.

We collected our hire car.  It is fabulous and great to drive.  It is a Lynk & Co, generous SUV. Took a while to work out how Elaine could let herself out in the back.  Managed to stay safe “large left, rigid right “ and “keep Elaine in the gutter” plus, and much more importantly, Kath beside me on the ball.  That said… need to take her tired “left” and “right” with a tablespoon of salt.  

The kerbs were a bit touchy at times. They gave my tires a wack when they thought we were a bit close.  Completely unnecessary.  I had a great grip on the situation.

Great screen with Frank on air to answer only some questions we have.  Siri is more helpful.

In preparation for our trip to the Ile de Re, we read Rosemary Pryor’s poem written in May 1988 ‘The Ballad of Ile de Re’:

Poet Rosemary Pryor under insolent umbrella

Our hearts filled with dread…. 😂 

We drove through La Rochelle and over the bridge over the pirates and onto the ile. The tide was out and I sent Rosemary a photo of the stranded boats and now completed bridge.  We decided to drive to the extreme end of the island to a French restaurant that had a 5 star rating. After a lot of driving, we found ourselves on a field track in the middle of nowhere and there it was, a shaky shack.  Here is an extract from the net of the 5 star rated address:

The 5 star restaurant

 We headed back to civilisation and loved the long haired donkeys we saw along the way. We are happy to report, Rosemary, that Ile de Re is now quite a pretty place buzzing with cycling tourists and catering to their needs are long stretches of fields and vineyards.

Tide now in

We lunched here. Note heavily pruned trees

Horses and a donkey on Ile de Re

Where is that 5 star rated restaurant?

Bridge half built in 1988, now completed. No more pirate’s paradise crossings

Tide is out in Ile de Re. Boats on a lean and resting 

We raced to visit a bird sanctuary close to Niort.  I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this sad sad place.  Pretty water birds trapped in sections with stagnant canals, segregated and some obviously traumatised.  What I saw here was what I saw at a zoo in Merida Mexico in 1999…desperate pacing along a fence.  At the zoo it was a black puma.  Here, birds along a wire fence.  Wings must’ve be clipped. Will investigate who to write to.  As a minimum the water needs to run a bit.  It was pungent. Would be good to liberate those birds, poor things. 

Pacing 🥲

African hatted … can’t remember their name now. But v pretty

Pink Footed Goose

We couldn’t see a label for this one. Duck l’Caramel? 

Ferrunginous Duck one of the many desperately pacing

Bare-Headed Goose 

Eeeeee-aaaaaw 🩷

Clipped wings? It seemed desperate to go 😢

The Musée du Donjon de Niort was very impressive and incredible with great views of Niort from the roof.  The winding stairs were challenging but worth it.  The rope to pull yourself along was helpful. Labour intensive to interpret all the displays using the poker and pamphlet they supplied and I gave up on that pretty quickly and just enjoyed the place. The cellar had displays about the excavation and many artefacts.  

Niort woman hanging out washing 

Map of the district with Elaine and Kath

A Donjon castle time line in French

A last glimpse of the pretty river

Sporting my new top! Gee it gets hot in France, not like in Norway!

My room at dawn 

I know…  

Home we finished the last of our soup made from the off cuts of our chicken:

We enjoyed our last night with wine on our terrace and then packed for the next leg… Milly-la-Forêt.  

Summarising thoughts on Niort:

Elaine: Niort was an understated but very historical town with a castle dating from 12th Century the dowry of Eleanor of Aquitaine who married Henry II of England. I thought the river was beautiful and flowed really well. It reminded me of an artist who does pictures of rivers from underneath with all the riches… a woman who does installations  European . Can’t remember her name just now. It was a clean and living river. Big market not at all touristy. Really good. 

Kathleen: (supplementing all else written and extracted from her Facebook entry on the topic…)  I liked the really pale stone.  All the houses were a kind of clotted cream colour.  The colour of the natural stone. Gave the whole place a good look.  The market hall was good. - originally from the 1100’s where we bought some delicious cheeses. There is wonderful bread here so ham sandwiches for the road tomorrow.

Helen : saluting all the above and adding in a beautiful cloud pic.

See you soon in Tours, Milly la Forêt, Fontainebleau and Chartres….