Bonjour la famille et les amis,
Arrived yesterday, Saturday, in La Rochelle, France. As many of you may remember, I visited La Rochelle back in 2012 for a few days. It is roughly at the mid-point on France’s Atlantic Coast that encompasses the Bay of Biscay. The train ride from San Sebastian was a long one with two connections, the first being in Hendaye, the first town across the border in France where one switches to the French railway system. The second connection was in Bordeaux where one transfers from a TGV to an Intercities train. All three segments were unusually uncomfortable – warm, sultry day and the AC onboard did not seem to be keeping up. Plus, an engine malfunction delayed us out of Bordeaux by 45 minutes.
La Rochelle
Why a return to La Rochelle? Well, it is a place that I really enjoyed visiting some five years ago and I want to see if it still retains its charm for me. If it does, it more than likely will be on the short list for places to spend time overseas when I retire – still holding out hope that I will get to do that at some point. 😉  So while I’m here, I wlll be re-visiting some sights that I really enjoyed, newly visiting some lesser known sights, and also spending some time just getting to know the town more extensively.
My accommodations for this time is a family-run B&B – Eden Ouest. While the parents own and mainly run the place, the son and his girlfriend are currently helping out to give mom and dad a little relief. Both the son, Gaspar, and his girlfriend, Nino (may not have that spelled correctly), are students working on finishing their masters thesis in sociology. Impressively, both are trilingual – Gaspar, who is French, speaks French, Spanish, and English, while Nino, who is Italian, speaks Italian, French, and English. After breakfast, we had an interesting and far ranging discussion – in English however.
Not to say that my French is going unused. It is proving quite up to the task for simple conversations, like with the maid and ordering food – a definite step up from my capabilities in Spain! Found the Tunisian shop that simply makes some of the best paninis in my opinion, as well as confirmed, at least in my mind, that the best pistachio ice cream is to be found in France – albeit that coming from Spain is a close second.
Lastly, in reference to today’s byline – Stade Rochelais. There was a tremendous gathering down by the port this evening. My initial thought was that it was a political or historical celebration of some sort. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I asked a group of people holding banners what was the nature of the event? Well, the local rugby club had just concluded its best season in its over 100 year history of being in existence. While the La Rochelle club, known as Stade Rochelais, had lost in the semifinals to Toulon, their supporters were ecstatic with their small market team’s accomplishment. FYI – rugby is HUGE in the southwest of France.
Stade Rochelais Flag
Stade Rochelais Team
A by-product of this, was that while their English was not that extensive, they really wanted to share with me how important this was, to the point where they were really searching for the right words in English, speaking very slowly in French (the way I like it), and calling over another friend who spoke a little better English. When I mentioned that I knew a bit about rugby and that my daughter had played for a while in high school, that only extended the conversation further and deeper. And naturally, when your team is from La Rochelle, they make their triumphant return via boat through the towers into the old port.
A very interesting day and hoping tomorrow is just as interesting!
A bientôt,
Papi
An excellent post Papi, though a small rebuke from your grandson: descriptions but no pictures of the choo choo? (Kidding of course). Is it cooling off? Looking forward to the next post!
Papi was a bit pre-occuppied with the activity on the water. However, the next post will include numerous photos of various forms of transport, including of course, choo-choo trains! As to the weather, a bit of rain overnight and in the morning, but then clear skies and much more comfortable temperatures.