GK Tours. Day 6 & 7 Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th November
Ile de Re to Cognac
Saturday
After an overcast start, the sun eventually broke through the clouds as we set off for a walk to the local town.
It’s accessible from the beach so we let Meg have a run, and a roll in dead crabs or anything smelly she could find 
.
The town is called Rivedoux, and was surprisingly busy. There was also a multiple supply of bars and patisseries. Lots of locals were meeting up, drinking before midday! 
And having a thoroughly good time in the sun.
Gareth popped into the covered market, small but full of lovely produce and then we sat for a coffee ourselves.
Rivedoux is quite a new town so the oldest buildings aren’t that old really. Most are bungalow or cottage size, noticeably there aren’t any over ground/first floor.
There’s a little port which is having a new sea wall installed which will make the walk even more enjoyable.
Walking around the back of the main roads we did notice a lot of holiday properties, locked up for the winter. This road took us to the opposite side of the island – we’re at the start of it so it’s quite thin at this point.
From here we popped onto the sandy, almost deserted beach and walked back towards the Aire. The sun was very warm by now so we were peeling off layers once again. Meg was even venturing into the water.
Just before the tip of the island we exited the beach by some old wartime battlements, now left to waste with graffiti the only brightness on them.
This then led us out onto the main road and across from the Aire.
We were in good time to set the telly up so that we could watch the rugby 
, sadly, after much searching, the power cable was nowhere to be seen 
. Oh well, I listened to it on my headphones through radio 5x instead while Gareth had a kip.
More experimenting with the airfryer tonight, pizza a la Kelly Darvall, and very successful they were too.
Sunday
Gareth has been reading about the oyster venders on the island so we decided to go and hunt one in particular down, apparently he has a vending machine for you 7/7 days, 24 hours a day! Do people really get that desperate for an oyster?
En route we were surprised to see vineyards , we didn’t even realise that wine was made here, and hadn’t seen anything advertising it. Driving through another town called Le Bois Plage, we noticed a market so found a parking space and stopped for a nosey.
Le Bois Plage is very pretty, low rise and pedestrianised lanes providing a leisurely stroll. Bread is an obligatory daily purchase and then Gareth popped into the covered market, emerging victorious with local Ile de Re red wine -€10 made our eyes water – and some fruit.
Onwards we drove, eventually reaching our goal, only to be told the restaurant was closed, ‘Ferme’ 
, had we known Gareth could have sampled some of the oysters on sale in Le Bois Plage. I’m of the opinion it wasn’t meant to be, and recovering quickly from his disappointment we drove off of Ile de Re with a promise to return and try again another day .
We had kept in mind it was remembrance Sunday and as we didn’t see anything happening locally, decided to listen to the BBC in the van, we timed it perfectly one minute before 11am British time, so got to join in with all of you guys at home. Apparently there will be remembrance services in France tomorrow so we may get to take part again.
Our next stop was Cognac. We’re not whisky/brandy people and put Cognac in that bracket really, but neither of us had been before, so into the satnav it went.
About 20 mins out of Cognac we started to see the vines used to make it. Funnily enought, like Ile de Re, there wasn’t any advertising for cognac along the route. This seems unusual as when we have visited other wine growing regions, chateaus and bodegas are advertised for miles.
Another great little Aire was waiting for us, beside the banks of the river Charente, behind the Martell factory and just a short walk into the old town – alongside the river if you so wish. Meg was very interested in the big fish swimming by 
.
Coming off of the river walk you arrive at the Hennessey buildings, huge white stone faced, with new parts inviting you in for tasting and museum tours. Just a little further on is one of the old gates to the old town – we missed it because, yes, you guessed it, it was covered in scaffolding and wrapped while it’s refurbished .
Most of the buildings in Cognac are big white stone ones but we did find a few left over from medieval times. The big church was rebuilt in the 15th & 16th centuries and is very unusual – to us anyway – because the next door buildings (homes and shops) are joined to it. When you go down the only accessible side it’s lined with shops. I suppose that when space was at a premium this is what needed to be done.
It was very quiet walking down the cobbled high streets which we put down to being a Sunday. When we finally found the main square called Place de Francois Premier (1st), we also found most of the Sunday crowd.
A lovely little plaza with plenty of outdoor chairs and tables and good service from the bars.
After taking a few photos of what I consider to be a typical french restaurant (something you would hope to find down a side street in Paris) we sat for a drink. I had a Summit, a cocktail with Cognac, lime, ginger and lemonade – yum yum. Gareth had a cognac with Perrier and a coffee to wash it down .
We walked the back roads down to the river, passing the Château de Cognac, a very impressive building, but from what we’ve read, quite expensive to look round.
There are pleasure boats moored along the riverbank which take you on a nice leisurely historic cruise up the Charente. They weren’t operating today and apparently tomorrow is a bank holiday so I don’t expect they’ll be available then either .
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