Day 7, Guerande, La Rochelle 'the white city'

After the room fiasco of last night (see photos) in which we could hardly get any sleep, we wanted to get out of Guerande as quickly as possible this morning. Just a quick breakfast shopping at the bakery and off we went to La Rochelle. The 3-hour drive was definitely worth it. As the name promises, everything looks brighter than in Brittany. Granite stone is now white plaster or stone with friendly shutters and cobblestone. To our luck, we discovered a free parking space right between the market hall and our Chambre d'hotes (Cour des dames) and were able to immediately dive into the hustle and bustle of the market. Hustle and bustle in the truest sense of the word: traders and customers shouting across the stalls, families and friends meeting for a glass of wine after shopping, tourists wandering through the tangle of stands and voices. In short, it was a dream. In front of the hall, under many pink umbrellas, there were still some local vegetable sellers with wonderful porcini mushrooms, unfortunately we don't have a kitchen in our accommodation. Our tour of the old town continued under the umbrellas until we finally reached the port. As it was rather touristy here, as everywhere so far, we made our way towards check-in. On the way, we actually just wanted to have a glass of Chardonnay to toast the newly discovered city. Instead, we ended up in a bar for horse betting, mon dieu, a real betting shop, exclusively for regular customers. So finish our drinks and move on. We found the next dive bar along the way. Owner: a former legionnaire, audience: from the Belgian on vacation to the dropouts with a guitar to the French retiree who used to work as a waiter at the casino in Baden Baden. So we were in the right place and were very warmly welcomed. Later than planned, we headed to our really beautiful accommodation. The hostess welcomed us very warmly and even recommended some restaurants. Relieved to sleep in a clean and beautiful room, we just went 'quickly' to dinner to now fall into bed exhausted from the night before.