Day 102
Bridges and forts
After our ‘rest’ we said our goodbyes, and headed off to pick up the cycleway, Eurovelo Route 1. We will stay on this to and through Spain. The route was mostly by the sea, and the miles flew by. We were heading for a lunch time stop at Fouras. Tom had chatted to a friendly French couple a few days ago, who had advised that it was definitely worth a diversion off EV1 to visit this town. And so it was. Small but beautiful, next to the sea. Dozens of small restaurants, full of people eating freshly caught oysters and drinking wine. We resisted and popped into yet another fantastic boulangerie. The picturesque town is dominated by the Fort de Fouras. There has been some form of fortified building here since the 11th century, the keep in current building dating from the 15th century, the rest of the building mainly 17th century. We hadn’t come to see this, no, we had planned to walk to Fort Enet, via the Causeway, which is only visible at low tide. Unfortunately, we were there at 2pm and low tide was 5pm, blast! Tom cheerfully launched the drone which made it there just fine! Fort Enet is one of a string of forts designed to protect the arsenal at Rochefort. They were built on the orders of Napoleon I, and started in 1810. I wonder if the forced labourers who built the canal at La Rochelle were involved?
We continued on our way, through an area of small canals that reminded me of the Somerset levels. Then in the distance loomed a massive arched road bridge. Our route took us safely over this and then to a rather older way of crossing the river, the recently renovated Transporter Bridge. Designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnold in 1900, as a way to cross the river between Echillais and Rocheport without hindering the shipping. The gondola was clearly very popular today with walkers and cyclists. As we were on the right side already, we opted to sit in the sun and eat freshly made ice cream instead.
Refuelled we headed towards our destination for the night. We passed through Rochefort rather too quickly, but we had time to admire a replica of a tall ship. The Hermione was an 18th century ship, 66 metres long, 3 masts, a flagship of the French navy. In the 1800s it was constructed in 2 years; the present replica took 17 years. In 2015 it retraced its namesake’s journey to America. We should have taken a tour, next time I hope!
We were soon on the outskirts of Rochefort in Tonnay-Charente, and yet again we were looked after by our fantastic Warmshowers host Julie.
