Day 7 Puyravault (La Vendée) to St Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique)

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Lovey sunny day which we have spent wandering through the back roads hugging the coast north towards Brittany.

Thought we would aim for a plat de jour today.....who knew how difficult that would be on the coast road in the autumn/winter of Covid🤔.

Our first port of call was Les Sables-d'Olonne. Didn't realise how big it was and whilst making our way down to the port we nearly turned into the Vendée Globe camp! It's similar to the set up for the Southampton Boat Show with huge marquees all over the place.

Well, as expected after seeing that, it was a very busy place with nowhere to park a motorhome. Gareth did an amazing job of navigating the oooh so narrow streets and tight little turns to get us back out on the main road, I'm not sure they took larger vehicles into consideration when planning the detours through the port.

It's well worth a visit.

Just our luck we chose the one year in four to pop in for lunch, and couldn't find a parking spot!

Moving on along the coast we spotted a couple of open restaurants in Bretignolles Sur Mer but would you believe it, all the car parks had height barriers! In the end we parked up in front of a closed shop next to a restaurant only to find it was 14:10 and they stopped serving at 14:00!

Too many height barriers for camping cars in the beachfront car parks so we gave up and eventually found a great spot off the main road alongside the salt marshes. Later we found out the salt is called the Sel d'Atlantique.

The coastline is beautiful so we got some good pics but even though the sun was shining it was cold ☃️. It was one of those days when you don't use sunscreen, bask in the lovely warmth of the sun out of the chilly wind and end up red faced and fried to a crisp! 😄. Yes, you've been there!

Onwards we travelled through the salt marsh area. The best thing we saw was sooooo many Egrets and Grey and White Herons stalking their prey or flying between waterways. What a treat 😍.

Strangely the terrain changed into what can best be described as The New Forest. There were plenty of parking areas in the forest with picnic benches and no height barriers, so we could have stopped if we had wanted to.

Eventually we came into St Nazaire, approaching across one of the highest bridges I think we have ever been on. The view from the St Nazaire Bridge is amazing. You can see the shipyards and the two new cruise ships they are building for MSC. The large cranes are dwarfed when you reach the apex of the bridge before starting your descent.

Once off the bridge you are straight into industrial areas. Our chosen pitch was on the Quai des Marees which means Tidal Dock.

The route was tight....and getting tighter but thanks to the skill of my driver we navigated a very slim bridge - without touching the sides I'll have you know - and after about umpteen roundabouts we came to the end of the dock. As you would expect, not very attractive but there's still beauty in it. A couple of the buildings had lovely murals, not sure what they are alluring to but they definitely brighten up the area.

We parked by the side of the port wall near loads of big fishing nets fixed on arms to the quay. There was a French man and his dog using one of them in front of us. Gareth gave the happy dog a good scruff of his head 😍 and checked with the guy if it was ok for us to park here. The answer was si vous voulez - if you want to 😊👍.

Van secure, off we went in search of dinner. We found a bar that was open and had a local beer sitting opposite the Submarine Museum. St Nazaire suffered badly during the war, overrun by the Germans, the allies tried their best to bomb the Submarine base but were unsuccessful in breaching the 10m thick concrete roof and walls.

Surprisingly there is a lovely beach on the other side of the Tidal Dock. Some bars and restaurants were just opening when we arrived and looked very inviting in the sun. We walked on into the town centre and happened upon a fab restaurant called Le Petit Goinfre, which translates to The Little Glutton! 😄

And yes we did! Gareth had a lovely aged Sirloin and I had the Pork Knuckle both served with homemade chips 😋. The Maitre D was great and asked if we wanted a particular wine or the regional? Do you want light or strong? We chose regional and strong and we weren't disappointed in a new to us bottle of Chinon🍷👍.

Couldn't leave without a cafe gourmand which we shared, it was just enough to sweeten the palette. The service here was lovely and we were really pleased we had found it.

Back to the van for a cuppa and a lay down! 🤣

Last day tomorrow xx