We were up very early, feeling groggy from a late night of packing and preparation. We left the house later than expectedand got the bus. When we arrived at St Pancras it was absolute chaos! Queues out the door and just one poor man trying to keep things calm and moving. By the time we got through to the departure lounge it was already time to board. I fell asleep on the train almost immediately and left Drummer Pie listening to music all the way to Paris!
Our original plan was to quickly grab the bikes from the platform and then take the metro to Gare Montparnasse. It became immediately apparent that this would be very tricky, and I was really struggling to carry everything! We were also starting to run out of time to make our connection. We approached the taxi rank, the first taxi we asked gave us a quote of 80 euros, crazy money! I felt really silly for not researching this cost beforehand. Before having a total panic we approached another driver, who had a slightly smaller car and he estimated it costing 15-20 euros, phew! He swiftly packed everything into his car (it was cosy) and we had a great chat in broken english/french, about the welsh rugby team and cycling in Paris. The taxi driver dropped us right by the escalators for the station, and wished us good luck, little did we know we would need it!
Then things got really stressful. There appeared to be no luggage trolleys in the station so we were again carrying everything, and by this time it felt like my arms might fall off! There were also so many people getting on our train, and everyone had loads of luggage- silly us didn't realise that travelling on the 1st August in France was a bad idea (te first day of the French summer vacations)
At this point I was standing on the platform getting more and more panicked as Drummer Pie tried to get the luggage on- and find a guard for some help- all the luggage racks were packed full. I was stuck on the platform with the bikes watching the clock in a mess of anxiety, when the guard finally came along and told us just to get on and sort the luggage out on board, we got on with seconds to spare! Once we were onboard the stress continued, and after much luggage tetris finally we got the bikes in place, having to store our bags across several racks!
Once all of the luggage was in place we headed to the dining carriage for an overpriced sandwich and cold drink. If felt like a huge relief to finally be on the last bit of the journey!
Arriving at La Rochelle felt like a massive achievement, and although we had to put our bikes back together and find a campsite, the holiday mood hit us! The bikes had survived the journey perfectly and reassembled them on the station platform.
The next stop was tourist information, which thankfully was very close and easy to find. I didn't really know what to expect of La Rochelle, it is a beautiful town and it felt great to be by the sea! Outside tourist information we bumped in to some Brits also on bikes, and they reassured us that the municipal campsite was not only close but nice, and pretty cheap, wahoo! They were correct, it was another 5 minute cycle and was only 15.60 euros for the night.
We had an enormous pitch and our tiny tent looked hilarious in comparison! This is when we realised that we had forgotten the hat for our tent (that covers the ventilation mesh at the top) and also that the lightweight pegs that we bought especially didn't actually fit through the anchor points for the tent - whoops! I hastily constructed another hat out of a bit of the mattress bag and some gaffa tape, and attached it with clothes pegs, perfectly fine! Then we weighed down the tent with our luggage and headed back in to town for some dinner and a well deserved beer.
After a wander around the beautiful walled town we found a bar- it was full of Brits! La Rochelle seems to be a very popular british holiday destination, and after a pretty darn expensive beer we asked for some restaurant recommendations from the ladies on the next table. They recommended a strip of restaurants all know for Moules Frites on the opposite side of the harbour, we headed over and we were not disappointed! There was even a bargain set menu! Drummer Pie tried mussels for the first time and they were a big hit.
Feeling full and tired we popped to a shop for some (more) beer and loo roll- an essential in french campsites- and slowly cycled back to camp. After enjoying Leffe in a can we and drifted off with every intention of an early morning start the next day...
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