An early start saw us heading out past the Citadel into the Chanel Sud and from there heading south the winds were light as promised for a change and it was a slow trip with a bit of troublesome swell down the thirty miles or so to Belłe Ile.
The winds continued light is hall day and I regretted not putting up our gennaker as it would have made all the difference, Lynne however has become quite sceptical of French weather forecasts so was fully expecting a force 5 any minute so we didn't bother, she does own half the boat after all !
The day was a real scorcher although both Lynne and I felt quite cold in the North westerly breeze. We were accompanied by a quite ridiculous amount of other boats, probably as it was a Saturday, however it is becoming obvious to us that everyone in France goes boating!
We had planned to anchor outside La Palais which is effectively the capital of Belle-Ile, however we were nabbed by the Capitainerie boat and directed onto a "boule" ( bouy) which already had four boats attached to it. We were then charged a quite incredible 20 € for this dubious privilege!
We soon forgot about that however after blowing up the dinghy we went ashore and explored a bit of this fascinating island. As our neighbours and ourselves sorted out our shore transport I began to notice the imposing fortress at the end of the harbour
This turned out to be another of Vaubans constructions and was considerably more extensive than was first apparent.
The picture above shows the entrance to the inner harbour where we could have stayed but as it turned out it wouldn't have been any quieter. The town is very quaint but was very busy with holiday crowds.
However charming it certainly was, the area around the harbour was full of cafes and bars and a great deal of clothes shops, Lynne bought a few bits and pieces however our afternoon coffee was neither as good or as cheap as Port Louis, didn't even get a wee biscuit!
We climbed up a way through the town and found a small beach tucked away.
We had also noticed some kind of fortification which we looked around on the way back.
They were very extensive extending all the way back into town
For some strange reason there was a replica of the " iron throne " from the TV series, Game of thrones. Couldn't resist a sit in it!
We returned to the boat just as a group of Frenchmen attempting to berth on " boule " adjacent to us succeeded in bashing into Dark Tarn three times, as it was a 50 foot fibreglass Benetau I'm afraid it got slightly damaged. I do think however an apology would have been nice........
We returned to town after determined to explore the citadel de Vaubans we could see from the boat.
It turned out to be quite a thing! We were a bit puzzled by the firemans hosepipe running into the entrance but that mystery would be solved before the evening was over.
We managed to climb up through the maze of ditches, glacis, portcullis, drawbridges and other military architecture and were rewarded by a superb view of the harbour.
The ferries were just finishing for the night and were berthing against the harbour wall.
The fortress is now a museum, hotel and restaurant.bas it grew dark we descended the impressive walls and sought out a bar for a quiet drink. As we sat at a pavement cafe the number of people passing made us think and as we made our way back to the harbour it became apparent that something was expected and a huge crowd had gathered beside the small shops and cafes beneath the Fortress walls. The lateness of the hour and the gathering dark made it all too obvious that we were going to have a fireworks display. And what a display it turned out to be!
I managed to capture about 30 seconds of video as photographs taken with a mobile phone really didn't do it justice.
I will try and post it when I have a decent connection.
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