{"id":12340,"date":"2018-11-15T20:26:14","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T20:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=12340"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:32:12","slug":"side-trip-to-saint-emilion-and-la-rochelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=12340","title":{"rendered":"Side trip to Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion and La Rochelle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Les Minimes (Port de Plaisance des Minimes) in La Rochelle is the largest pleasure boat marina in France (5000+ boats!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left Hondarribia, Spain, in the Basque Country, on October 13 heading for\u00a0Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion, 35 km northeast of Bordeaux, and a three hour drive away.\u00a0\u00a0Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion’s history goes back to prehistoric times and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with churches, ancient structure,\u00a0 and ruins stretching all along steep and narrow streets.\u00a0 It\u00a0is one of the principal wine growing areas of Bordeaux.\u00a0 We arrived on a sunny and warm Saturday afternoon and the streets were crowded with tourists.\u00a0 It rained almost continuously the next day and the streets were empty save for the puddles.\u00a0 We still squeezed some walks\u00a0through the picturesque streets in between showers, and did a quick wine tasting at a vineyard outside of town on the drive north the next day.<\/p>\n

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View of Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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View of Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Vineyards near Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From\u00a0Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion we drove two hours north to the beautiful city of La Rochelle on the Bay of Biscay in the Charente-Maritime department<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0La Rochelle has special meaning to us.\u00a0 It is the place where Sabbatical III was built by the Amel shipyard, and this was our third trip to this lovely town.\u00a0 Our fond recollections of La Rochelle arise not only from the thrill of taking possession of the boat that has been the center of our lives these past 15 years, but also from the charming and authentic nature of this town of 75,000 and, perhaps strangely, from the unforgettable Soupe de Poisson at Bar\u00a0Andr\u00c3\u00a9\u00a0 on the waterfront.\u00a0 The Amel staff took us to Bar\u00a0Andr\u00c3\u00a9 during both of our visits in 2003 and introduced us to the Soupe de Poisson.\u00a0 It was our “go to” meal during the chilly weeks of late October and early November 2003 when we were living on-board the brand new Sabbatical III in the nearby Marina Les\u00a0Minimes.<\/p>\n

So on the 15th birthday (to the day) of Sabbatical III, we had another wonderful stay in La Rochelle.\u00a0 The Soupe de Poisson was as good as we remembered and the town was even better in unusually warm and sunny weather.\u00a0 We stayed in a quiet hotel located within the long narrow park in town and found that we could walk almost everywhere from there.<\/p>\n

We arranged a test sail of the new Amel 50\u00a0 on a beautiful but almost windless day.\u00a0 A hostess aboard cooked us a multi-course meal as we slowly sailed from La Rochelle to the nearby island of\u00a0\u00c3\u017dle de R\u00c3\u00a9.\u00a0 The boat was fantastic with the easy sailing pedigree of previous Amel boats like our Super Maramu but also new features and interiors creating more light and space.<\/p>\n

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Mark about to enter the electric ferry that crosses the old harbor of La Rochelle to the\u00a0 Marina Les Minimes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Small boats from a sailing school for children return to port, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lunch aboard a new Amel 50 while anchored off \u00c3\u017dle de R\u00c3\u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Laura relaxes on our test sail of an Amel 50<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Entrance to the old harbor, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Entrance to the walled city of La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also visited the Amel factory and viewed the process of building an Amel 50.\u00a0 Plus, I finally got to meet\u00a0Maud Touillet, the “service after sales” representative that I have been dealing with for the past few years via email.\u00a0 Who is this caring and efficient person who answers my emails with the information that I need and sends me parts to where ever I might be?\u00a0 Now I know.<\/p>\n

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Mark poses with Maud Touillet, service client\u00c3\u00a8le person at Chantiers Amel, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Building a new Amel 50 at Chantiers Amel, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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View from the beach promenade, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Marche du Centre Ville, La Rochelle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our last day in La Rochelle, we drove over the bridge to\u00a0\u00c3\u017dle de R\u00c3\u00a9, described as the “Martha’s Vineyard of France.”\u00a0\u00a0The island has a network of cycle tracks, and many residents rarely use cars for transportation. They are famous for their oysters, mussels, and fish.\u00a0 We walked for miles on the northern shore promenade, had a wonderful lunch, then walked along the long, wide beaches of the southern shore before returning across the 3 km bridge to La Rochelle.<\/p>\n

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Oysters and Soupe de Poisson starters in \u00c3\u017dle de R\u00c3\u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Beach in \u00c3\u017dle de R\u00c3\u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mussels (Moules-frites) at Bar Andr\u00c3\u00a9, La Rochelle, Vieux Port<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left La Rochelle on October 20 and drove all the way back to the Basque country in one day.\u00a0 We flew back to Lanzarote Island the next day and returned to Sabbatical III at the Marina Rubicon, where we still remain.<\/p>\n

M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Hondarribia, Spain, in the Basque Country, on October 13 heading for\u00a0Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion, 35 km northeast of Bordeaux, and a three hour drive away.\u00a0\u00a0Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion’s history goes back to prehistoric times and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with churches, ancient structure,\u00a0 and ruins stretching all along steep and narrow streets.\u00a0 It\u00a0is one of the principal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Side trip to Saint-\u00c3\u2030milion and La Rochelle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-2018"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}