Royan

Well after exhausting the restaurants of La Rochelle Debbie flew home on Wednesday 2nd July, I moved out of our lovely but very noisy hotel to the familiar gentle rocking of the boat; or I would have done if the marina had not moved it to a pontoon near the entrance so that every time an inconsiderate sailor came in too fast the pontoon and my boat did a frenzied dance which left me feeling knackered when I got up at 7a.m.
The plan today is to sail the 60 miles down the coast to Royan which is about 20 miles up the Gironde river. You can't sail due south so you have to sail west around the tip of Ille d'Oeron then turn south and it was about here as I sailed into a wall of 3m Atlantic rollers that I started to feel rather unwell, this developed into my first full blown bout of seasickness. I was either yawning or retching for the next 8 hours and by the time I got to Royan I felt really awful. The truth is the the sailing was very good but I just wasn't interested thankfully as soon as I'd stepped ashore and had a shower I felt better; I went for a walk then went to bed and slept like the dead.
Before WW2 Royan was a very posh resort where the Paris elite had villas for the summer unfortunately after D-day a regiment of nasty German soldiers started to dig in here so the British carpet bombed the place so successfully that, apart from ONE house, nothing remained. It was re-built in the 50's in a town planning sort of way which is heavily critised in my guide book however I think they have done a good job. You get broad tree lined avenues and great curved streets designed for both cars and pedestrians. The horizon is dominated by a fantastic concrete church 65 metres high in the shape of a boat; the concrete re-inforcing is failing now but the interior is superb, stark walls and striking stained glass... very impressive.

In the berth behind me is a large motor cruiser with 5 really polite German lads and I wonder how they feel wandering around somewhere like Royan which was not only devastated because of the Nazis but also because they cannot fail to see a number of really moving memorials to French partisans and jews who were shipped off to concentration camps never to return?

The marina is so quiet after La Rochelle it's wonderful anyway I'm going to stay here until Saturday the 5th then I make my single longest trip 185 miles to Bilbao and Espana. I will leave with the tide at about 8p.m. Saturday night and I should arrive around lunchtime on Monday.
If it takes longer I will be in the Azores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tonight I'm going to listen to a Jazz band in a bar overlooking the beach and watch the sun go down whilst I sink a couple of cold ones ....... life gets better than this but not by much!