Off again on another expedition to Les Sables D’Olonne! This was a week of firsts for me. From eating cockles, going to the thinnest street in the world, driving ON the sea and so much more…

A quick refresher before I start: For the weekend of my trip spent with the JPC kids (read week 16’s blog post), I stayed with an amazing host family; Pierrot, Coline, and Louis. Louis and his class went to NZ earlier in the year and offered to host me. I had a fantastic time there, and I must have done something right because I was invited to spend this week with them!

I arrived at Les Sables D’olonne’s train station on Sunday evening and was greeted by 2 beaming faces and hugs. We caught up about everything on the short ride to their amazing boat-themed house. I learned Louis had had an operation on his leg 4 days ago and had just gotten off crutches this morning. Despite that, he seemed happy, but throughout the week we had to be careful about our activities so he didn’t hurt it again.

I almost forgot how brilliant the food here is, Marie-Jeanne (Coline’s mother) is the god of the kitchen. She made the most amazing vanilla cake with a strawberry filling that I have ever tasted – it was even better than chocolate cake! 😮 For dessert I also had a really nice tradition dish – a speciality to the region- known as Les Caillebottes. It was a sort of mix between junket and freshly made yogurt. Apparently, it’s made using the charfonnette flower, but whatever it was, I will definitely be asking for the recipe! Louis’ brother and girlfriend, who I hadn’t met before (they live in Toulouse), came over for a while and we played Settlers of Catan all night – Louis won every single time. I’ve made it my life’s mission to beat him.

On Monday morning we had the best brioche I’ve ever tasted with the best jam I’ve ever tasted (made my Marie-Jeanne of course). Louis took me took to the Rue Trompeuse, a street where the walls were decorated with all different types of shells and made into intricate designs, it was absolutely amazing and must have taken forever to create. We went on a short tour of the beautiful seaside strand and then returned back home where Louis’ friends were coming over for the afternoon. I did recognise some of the guys that came over from the last time that I was here. We had another game of Settlers Of Catan, then played a really cool french game called Molkky, which was a cross between bowling and cub. Coline made crepes for everyone and showed me how to cook them perfectly and gave me the recipe, they were absolutely drool worthy. (If anyone is interested in these recipes I charge $5 ;D – that includes Mum and Dad)

After the guys left, Coline took me to see the strand (the main street right by the sea) at night time decked with lights, bands, and street performers. During summer the roads are closed every evening there, as well as every other Sunday during the year. The place was totally packed with people, and every where you looked there was a different performer. My 2 favourites was a man who rode a unicycle 5 meters in the air, on a thin bit of wire – like you’d see in the circus. Another man rode on a unicycle with 3 wheels stacked on top of the other and juggled 3 soccer balls at the same time – it was crazy!! On the way back home, we stopped by the thinnest street in the world, it measured 40cm wide, it was a good thing I didn’t eat any more crepes!

We left the house bright and early on Tuesday morning to make our way to the Island of Noirmoutier. However, I more excited about the journey to the island rather than the actual place itself. In order to get there, we took the Passage du Gois, a 3km crossing to the island, only accessible at low tide. During high tide, everything is covered in water and no one would be the wiser to know there was a passage there! Before we drove through the passage there was a sign with a picture of a car covered in water saying “risk of drowning”, apparently when the tide comes back in it’s so fast you can’t outrun it. According to Pierrot, it’s as fast as horses galloping. For people who get caught in the high tide, there are small tower like things set up to climb. If you look on google images all the photos are of cars covered in water.

Knowing that we were driving on the sea was the coolest feeling ever. We got out half way along the drive and collected cockles in the sand. We weren’t the only one with this idea, about 2,000 people were out there with their buckets and forks. After about an hour and a half of cockle fishing, we made our way to the island and had crepes. The island itself was absolutely stunning, there were half a dozen mini salt plants, and the rest of the island was covered in vegetation and little beaches packed with tourists. It was picturesque.

We rented out bikes for the afternoon and cycled around the shores, stopping at a famous beach ‘ la page des dames’ that was the set for many french movies. After a few swim stops, we made our way back to the town’s centre and had some ice cream from “tutti fruitti”, recommended to us from the bike lesser. He had told us it was the best in France and my goodness he was right! I had orange chocolate ice cream and nearly passed out when I tasted it – it was soooo good!!
We drove back to the Passage Du Gois to see it at high tide. I didn’t even recognise it as the same place, the whole thing was covered in water, I was mindblown!! After, we took the bridge over the passage back to the mainland and drove back home.

After such a busy day we decided to have a bit of a laid back day today as we were all pretty wrecked from yesterday’s expedition and all the biking had made Louis’ leg play up. Coline and I went swimming and I spent a good hour extracting Marie-Jeanne’s recipes from her:) All in all, it was a fantastic few days and there’s still more to come!