Oyster quest continues – Saint-Denis-d’Oléron, France

Leaving Bordeaux we made another big river crossing over the Gironde and the impressively tall Pont d’Aquitaine and then shortly after the Dodoyne, which must take us a fair way up the major rivers of France tick list now. We had a tip off on another Oyster Haven on the Île d’Oléron just up the coast from us, south of La Rochelle and decided to investigate. We visited La Rochelle a lot 13 years ago when we bought a boat there and wanted to try new territory, the Îles-de-Ré we are also keen to visit but it has been on our bucket list for so long we decided to not spoil it by visiting in November and save them for another trip.

A bit more of Eddie Jones’ biography took us all the way to another impressive bridge across to the Île d’Oléron over 2800m long. Oyster sellers were on either side of the road and we thought we must be in the right place. The old bridge is still visible in sections alongside and I was mighty pleased we were not having to squeeze Clouline down there. As it was the D roads we were travelling were inexplicably busy with lorries for a road which essentially only goes to a small island. It takes a bit of concentration on narrower roads when sat offside in our right hand drive motorhome to stay out of the way of the lorries but all passed without incident. We had found an Aire at the far north of the island and so drove most of 30km of the length. It was much more built up than we imagined, not so much housing as lots of businesses, which perhaps explains some of the trucks too.

Kevin had his mind set on more oysters and having missed the lunchtime service (most restaurants are strictly 12-2pm) due to a supermarket stop we decided to wait until evening to go and explore it being about 8 degrees outside. We set off about 6.20, hoping to catch the start of the 7pm service having been reliably informed by Google maps there were restaurants available which opened at 6pm. We headed through the centre of the village to the marina, still only 6.45pm but there were no lights on at any of the 4-5 restaurants there. Those in the village were the same. It seems out of season they are open at weekends only, despite what Google might say.