This morning we realised that the berth we had taken, must be in an area reserved by Dufour as all the boats in this part of the marina were either brand new, or second hand Dufours for sale – think we will just hide in here as there are another couple of berths free. I can just act the dumb tourist if anyone get’s upset 😉

We decided to take the water taxi/bus from the marina up to La Rochelle, which would give us the chance to go through between the tow old towers built to protect the town from the British, and this was a really neat thing to do.

It was pretty much bang on low tide, and because of this we could see quite clearly how narrow the channel was from the marina complex to the town……………Looks wide at high tide but in reality it is really really narrow all the way up to the towers.

La Rochelle has mix of lovely old buildings and also some concrete carbuncles.

This tower is the last remaining medieval lighthouse left on the Atlantic Coast and must rate as one of the prettiest. The actual light is within the small tower on the right hand side of the spire.

On our wonderings we also came across the area where the Velux five oceans race was either being prepared or had finished. Looking at these boats in the marina, one realises just how much it takes to handle one of these single handed across oceans. It was also neat to see the Union Flag flying from one of the boats. If the race has not started we wish whoever is sailing it, the best of luck & if it’s finished we hope he/she had a good race.