Downtime.....

We had a couple of days to wait for our charts towards the Spanish border to be delivered. As we had been visiting museums and so forth which is something Lynne and I enjoy doing we decided to do something we almost never get the chance to and spend a day on a beach. Twice in one week is something of a record for us. We went to the Grand Plage which is immediately adjacent to the Citadel. We lazed about and went swimming.

I found it very restful, but Lynne was not coping with the heat even with regular swims in the cool water. None the less a fine way to spend a hot afternoon, of course if we had been in proper French mode we would have spent the first two hours having lunch!

The following day was thankfully a little overcast and a lot cooler. The previous day Lynne had noticed a path running along the town walls, you had to walk through gateways in the walls in order to get to the beach. We decided to take the path and see where it led us. I didn't think Lynne was thinking things through at the time as the top of the walls seemed a long way up to me and there was no handrail. Lynne is very sensibly in my opinion, wary of dangerous things and it seemed slightly out of character for her to volunteer something that was potentially risky. I put it down to too much sun!

However it soon became apparent that Lynne wasn't happy.

To add to the mounting tension the narrow path along the ramparts went on for ages,  also becoming increasingly narrow! At one point the path was about 18 inches wide and sloped downward too boot. Needless to say at the first opportunity ( which was a long time coming ) Lynne returned to ground level and left me to enjoy the views.

Port Louis was surprising us again, the fortifications seemed to go almost completely around the peninsular.

Eventually we, with me in the sky and Lynne on the ground, came to the opposite side of the peninsular and a rather charming place it turned out to be with extensive views towards the Isle of Gavres and the inland sea.

There was even a helpful Dias telling you where everything was.

It seemed to be the kind of place that attracts artists, it had a feel of St Ives in Cornwall and indeed there were several gallery's and a great deal of " found art " as my friend Brian informs me it's called.

Some old, and some new........

The most surprising thing however was when we found a map of our walk and we discovered it was almost a complete circle and within five or ten minutes we were back in the church square in time for our afternoon coffee.