We travelled to Portsmouth on Friday afternoon and met the usual Friday traffic queues as well as a long section of road works on the M6. Satnav sent us along the M6 as we approached the Midlands instead of suggesting M6 Toll. We saved the toll charge and I think it would not have been any advantage as on the M42/M40 there was a huge queue of traffic because of merging from the right to get past a broken down car in lane 3 of 4. We had made plenty of time allowance and arrived at Portsmouth Ferry terminal with loads of time to spare.
This time we were picked out for a brief security search for the first time. 3 minutes saw us joining the correct lane for loading. We parked close to the lift on board the Mont St Michel and were helped with luggage by a friendly crew member. We had booked a wheelchair accessible cabin and it was a very good one with plenty of space in the ensuite bathroom. The sailing was at 22.45 so we grabbed a piece of gateau and some wine before retiring for a very short sleep. We had to rise at 4.45 to be ready to leave the ship at 5.45!
Our journey to Pornic in the south of Brittany was tedious as a result and with rest stops we arrived at noon. Firstly, we checked the location of our gite in the town. Then we visited Intermarche supermarket for essential rations and had lunch. Our next task, whilst waiting for the 4.00pm changeover time at the gite, was to find the restaurant Villa Noe that we had booked for dinner that night. We could not find it using its address in Satnav but found it under Points of Interest. So we drove off to the location given. We drove to the point shown on Satnav and there was nothing but private residences. We kept driving round in case we had missed a sign somewhere. It became apparent that there was no such place as given by Satnav.
We parked up and I took a long walk around the area to see if I could find it but without success. How would we find it? Would we have to try another place that night? We parked up by the river and sat on a bench. As luck would have it we met three English people and asked them if they knew of the restaurant. They were visitors too! Fortunately one of them was half French and he phoned the restaurant for us. The outcome was that we were not far from the Villa Noe but how to get there was unclear! We decided to drive further along the road and take another turn. No luck. Round we went again and drove to a T junction and turned left down to the river. We found it! The problem was that it appeared not to be accessible by wheelchair. I got out and did another walk and found the way to get the wheelchair in.
In the evening we drove to the Villa Noe for dinner and what an experience it was. The staff were so helpful getting Pauline in her wheelchair to the table! We consulted the menu which was chiefly seafood. Our starter was fish soup and it tasted wonderful. When the main course came we were amazed at how much we had and the variety too. It was an assortment comprising oysters, crevettes, razor clam, tiny shrimps, langoustine, half a crab and other shellfish we could not identify. We love seafood but were overwhelmed at the quantity. They offered to make up a doggy bag but we declined. We went back to the gite feeling our meal was excellent and we had booked a table for the next evening.
Back at the gite we got ready for bed. As we lay there reading I heard a banging sound which seemed to be something hitting the gite wall. I got up and went outside to discover there was a fireworks display in the port! I settled down and fell asleep. I slept like a log and felt ready to face the next day, Sunday.
There had been one event the previous day that required some attention. On unloading the car I discovered the washing up liquid we had brought had leaked and covered the contents of the bag and the back seat of the car in Fairy Liquid!!! We now have a very clean seat in the car!
The gite itself is a prefabricated design two bedrooms affair. There is plenty of room and lots of storage space as well as everything we could need. Monsieur and Madame Moinard were very welcoming and showed me how to find and use everything in the gite. They even included what day the wheelie bin was emptied. It was all done in French and, amazingly, I understood and could reply in a limited fashion.
A good start, I think.
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