EXPLORING L’ ÎLE DE RÉ.- PART ONE.- FRANCE VAN TRIP- MAY/JUNE ’25.

Finally the rain clears, and so it’s time to explore the’ île de Ré’!
We set off on the bikes, making the most of the weather, heading for the famous lighthouse, ‘Le Phare Des Baleines’, then onto ‘Portes-En-Re, making our way through a lovely Nature reserve, before hitting a few beaches along the coast.
The riding is easy along the designated bike lanes, but a bit tough on the old bum!!! We’re getting old!!!

[Music] it is our first morning on the ILE and we’re at the campsite the sun is out and it looks absolutely fantastic weather today so we are heading out on the bikes and we’re going to go and have a look at the island let’s go so this morning we are heading right to the very tip of the island at the north um to a famous lighthouse and a viewpoint so uh it says it’s about 15 minutes cycle away from the campsite so let’s go and have a look well we’re off the beaten track we don’t actually know with us we’re actually supposed to be doing this route but never mind us being us we just do whatever through the forest definitely going through the forest that’s for sure right that’s our little forest adventure over I think straight on oh it’s pretty pretty little houses pretty flowers look beautiful field of poppies look at all of them well I can see why they say it’s a cycling mecca they have made a concerted effort to make it very cycling friendly I must say well apart from unless you go through a forest that you’re not supposed to then it’s not quite so cycling friendly but that’s just us oh coming up to the to the lighthouse let’s go and there is the lighthouse so lots of lovely little shops selling all kinds of souvenirs and trinkets and a big blue fish there you go oh you have to pay to go in though or you won’t be going in then we don’t do paying [Music] things with the French flag of course awesome let’s have a little wander down here ah you can see the lighthouse from here up there look look at this well I guess uh building cans is a thing and the lighthouse cool and burning this is a lovely little prominard that just runs all the way along back on the cycle path and we are now heading to the port dur let’s go beautiful these pretty little streets church lovely little church please s you it’s a very pretty little village i love the color of the um of the shutters all in pale pastely colors greens blues it’s got a little carousel lots of little shops lots of restaurants that is what you call a little street it’s not even got a road old village well I guess oh what’s that i don’t know let’s have a look and see what that is oh it’s something made out of wood i don’t know what it is let’s have a look what is that oh my gosh look at that it’s a bridge made out of wood I think is it an octopus i think it might be an octopus i don’t know let’s have a look let’s go through the bridge under the bridge oh is through the tentacles oh my gosh that’s the most bizarre thing why would you have that in the middle of a salt marsh i don’t know anyway oh Bernie says “Turn around and have a look at it from that side.” Let’s have a look tentacles that was awesome that’s one of the best bridges I’ve ever been under I think cool so we are cycling back to our campsite from Port Day for some lunch cuz we’re starving and we’re cycling through the lovely It’s It’s gorgeous it’s through a nature reserve back to the little town of Arsenray which is just up from our campsite that we’ve not actually visited yet but this is absolutely delightful there’s wild birds everywhere stunning absolutely gorgeous and glorious weather yes France comes through again in May get in so it is after lunch and we are heading back through the gorgeous nature reserve on solar power yes on solar power from the van thank you very much it’s just reszapped our batteries and um yeah it’s absolutely beautiful we really love this little ride on the way home so we thought we’d come back the other way head back towards the port dur further to the eastern point of the northern part of the island why not just because we can well it says the points this way so let’s go have a look aha ah what’s down there let’s have a look down there first i know that says plage that way but I just want to have a little quick look down here oh yeah it’s pretty that’s a pretty little cove gorgeous right let’s keep going now there’s some very very nice houses along here this is Posh Street let’s go this way ah here we go ah you see that’s nice now that’s a quiet beach yeah I love the sign no supervising beach bathing at one’s own risk just another delightful little harbor beach lots of boats look at that gorgeous oh I’ve lost Birded he’s gone okay Birdard is that enough for today he was spend the evening on the beach oh we’ve got our beach to go and look at we haven’t even looked at the beach next to the campsite yet yeah the one 100 foot away yeah let’s go do that that would seem like a really really good plan yeah we’ll go back and put batteries on charge yeah yeah