Hayfever and sun stroke

The market in front of the church in Coulon

We are in Le Marais Poitevin next to village called Coulon, which is just south west of Niort. The country side is fascinating. It is flat and marshy and crisscrossed by canals - hundreds of them. The camp site is right next to the main river which runs through the marais - Le Sevre. There are flat bottom boats everywhere (like punts) and well into the last century they were the main means of transport. We saw two women and a child crossing the Le Sevre to their house and my photographer managed to get a picture of them.

Ferry across Le Sevre

We are not supposed to be here; well not yet. We set off from Concarneau to drive to La Rochelle. When we were nearly there, Chris looked up the directions to the campsite and said that it doesn't open to the end of June! Bad planning Dolan. Our next choice was closed when we got there because of the very bad storm last spring which killed so many people on the coast here. So we fast forwarded some plans and arrived late in the evening in the village of Coulon.

The area is known as La Venise Verte; and it is very green and full of wildlife. I saw an otter on my evening walk last night! The site is about 2km from the village. Our late morning walk tends to be the same. A stroll beside the river into the village; buy a paper and head for the cafe. Then pop into the church for some reflection and decide what to do with the rest of day. Normally, we will walk for an hour or so before returning to the van for a little rest and perhaps a nap. It's a dog's life, but we don't complain.

Thursday - There is wifi on the site and we have just read in the Guardian of the terrible shootings in Cumbria. It is unbelievable. It was also front page news in the French paper this morning. We went for a long walk along the banks of Le Sevre and had a picnic lunch. It was very hot and when we got back Chris felt ill with too much sun and I had a touch of my childhood malady - hayfever!

La blogger at work

Friday - another very hot day and so we are staying at the site in the shade. I walked into the village on my own to get a paper and have a coffee. I also bought a euro millions lottery ticket for tonight. You never know! There is some entertainment on in the village tonight. It's advertised as a circus, but there is no big tent or anything. They were setting up in a little square by the river this morning; so we will walk in tonight and see what's happening.

I think that this blog is long enough, and I will leave tonight's entertainment and further adventures until the next one. I have also included some more photos at Tom's request.