Marie-Claire had told me that it was 4 km from her house to the bridge and 3 km across the bridge, so 7 km to Île de Ré. I must have erred in my navigation (I'm quite sure I did) because by the time I'd reached the island, I'd cycled 11 km.
How I could have difficulty finding something this big, I don't know!
I suspect those 11 km might be as far as many of the cyclists on the island go in a day. And there are LOTS of cyclists on the island. It's flat, with separated bike trails everywhere and they are BUSY, especially on a Sunday afternoon. There are lots of young families on bikes, people with dogs in front or rear baskets or in trailers. Most of the cyclists, though, are of the I-only-ride-a-bike-on-holiday-and-only-if-it's-flat sort. Even with a tailwind and sometimes an e-bike, some of them are barely moving.
I wanted to see the lighthouse at the other end of the island. There are a lot of bike trails on the island and they are decently-well signed, but somehow I missed a turn, so I took a different way to "Le Phare" than I intended. On the way I went through Le Bois Plage, where there was a busy market. I stopped at a bakery and bought a sandwich (which actually had lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise along with the poulet) to carry along for a beach lunch somewhere.
Yet another try for THE field of poppies photo. One of these days...
After a lot of wrong turns, I arrived at the Phare des Baleines, which is almost as far as you can get from the bridge (referred to as "Le Pont" on all the navigational signs) without swimming.
Once I got there, I paid the admission to climb the main lighthouse. It's 60 m high and Garmin was in my pocket, so that's the source of the little elevation spike at about 46 km in the track posted below.
Looking up. It's a beautiful spiral staircase. I wished I had it to myself to get a really good photo.
Scott AndersonYou’ve done fine. This is way better than the photo I came home with from this lighthouse. Isn’t this the best place though? I’d love to see this again. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonI like it too, but it would be better without the arms. It’s the nicest spiral staircase I’ve ever seen. And yes, Île de Ré is worth a return trip! Reply to this comment 5 years ago
And looking down from the top of the stone stairs; two short flights of narrow metal stairs complete the climb. If you zoom in, you can see the floor at the bottom. It says 1854, the year the lighthouse was built.
Scott AndersonI took this photo 12 years ago also, with a camera I wasn’t nearly as happy with as what I carry now. I could make out the date, but it was very foggy. This is a really great shot. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
There's a smaller lighthouse too. Its visit is included with the museum in the building below and was quite a bit more expensive than just climbing the big one (which presumably replaced it).
After coming down, I continued away from Le Pont, riding across the north-facing part of the outer end of the island.View from my lunch spot on the beach.
On my way back from Plage de la Platage, I made the short detour to Plage de Trousse Chemise. This is a beautiful beach and I'm so glad I went there.
Near Plage de Trousse Chemise. This beach (and presumably others) was badly damaged in a hurricane so many nearshore areas are fenced off to allow the land to recover. The natural flora is beautiful.
On the way back, I took the route through the salt marshes. The other place I wanted to visit was the Écomusée du Marais Salant to learn a bit about traditional salt harvesting since this is such an important part of the history of the Atlantic coast of France. There were lots of "vente direct" salt sales along the roads and bike trails.
This one isn't part of the museum but it appears to have been worked on recently.
Seawater is captured at the high spring tides (just after the full and new moons) in the big pool at left. It's allowed to settle and then the water is allowed to flow into the second settling pond to the right.
I had dinner in La Flotte before returning to the mainland. I was early so enjoyed an apéritif before dinner. I knew they made wine on Île de Ré (and I had some with my pizza), and the pocket guide I got from the tourist office mentions a craft brewery (closed on Sundays), but I didn't know there was local pastis.
I took a different route back to La Rochelle, following the marked bike route. If I hadn't messed up outbound and gone through the commercial port area, I could have just retraced my track. Oh well, I got to see some different places and got home in the end.
Clearly Garmin isn't that accurate with elevations (it's based on atmospheric pressure) because the bridge didn't get higher through the day!
