George and Graham have now left us – George to meet some friends in Croatia and Greece, and Graham to head to London to start his adventures there. It was very sad to see them go, as it brings the first and major part of our trip to an end. It has been a great 6 weeks :)
Ross and I have decided to travel for a bit longer in the van, which the boys generously agreed to. We've brought Monique to La Rochelle, a coastal town on the Atlantic side of France. It's a really beautiful town, with over 3500 private boat moorings, and it's packed!
We went to the beach both yesterday and today, and are amused, as Australians, what we find there. Firstly, the beaches are tiny, and mostly covered in rocks and shells, with some really course sand. No one seems to mind – the kids still build sand castles, and the old ladies with leather-like skin still roast themselves until they look like something you'd buy from Red Rooster. The beaches were packed to the rafters. There was barely enough room to walk between the towels. There is a very different attitude to beach-going here. There are topless women everywhere. Young women, old women, mothers with their whole families sitting there, women sitting topless next to kids building sand castles. It's definitely a new experience, and a little shocking at first. You turn around and cop an eyeful and aren't really sure where to look. Modesty doesn't seem to be a concern here!
We walked back into town last night for dinner – we had read about a couple of the restaurants, and wanted to check them out. We ended up at Andre's, a seafood restaurant, and had a great dinner – it's nice to have a break from our limited repertoire of van cooking!
This afternoon we took the bikes out to do some exploring. The Brompton is a great bike, but has the hardest seat in the history of bikeseats. Lance – did you get the leather seat because the wooden ones were out of stock?!
In the campsite that we're staying in there are two dutch girls staying in a tent across the road. They have the biggest tent I've ever seen for two people, and both brought giant suitcases with them. We were a little puzzled until I saw one of the girls in at least 4 different changes of clothes throughout the course of the day. One of them completely washed and blow-dried her hair before going to the beach. This caused me no end of amusement. We saw them in town having dinner last night – you'd never know that they're staying in a tent!
We're planning to make our way down the coast to Spain. I'm a little nervous (I've been very comfortable in France, knowing a little of the language), but I'm very excited to get a little out of my comfort zone, and I've never been to Spain!
Comments:
Post a Comment