Public Holiday

Mileage: unchanged

In the morning we noticed that the predicted rain had once again not materialized, the country remained dry.

We prepared a proper breakfast and got ready for our trip to La Rochelle. The city has been one of the three most important Atlantic ports of France since the early Middle Ages and at times a stronghold of the Huguenots.

At the reception, we received the bus schedules for the half-hour ride on line 17. The bus was supposed to stop near the campsite at 12:30, and we arrived at 12:20. Just before departure time, a young woman sat down with us in the waiting area; we waited, she waited, it became 12:30, then 12:35, then 12:45. The woman started to nervously tap on her phone, she read, she typed some more, she read again... then she asked us if we were also waiting for the bus, which we confirmed. She then explained to us that she would miss her appointment in La Rochelle because it was a 'Public Holiday' - . So today, not a single bus would run, not now and not in two hours, not at all. We thanked her for the info and looked at each other. Public holiday? That's how we learned that in all of France, 'Assumption Day' is a public holiday. Even if we had made it to the city, everything would have been closed: the harbor towers, the aquarium, the museums; we might have been lucky with the churches.

We returned to Gary and first took a siesta; what else was there to do?

Then Ines researched a bit and found the 'Canal de Marans à la Rochelle.' It was within walking distance, and a few steps by the water wouldn't harm us. Sebb wondered how much water there would be in the current weather conditions since most of the streams and some rivers in the region had dried up by now.

We were surprised because when we reached the canal, it was full of water, and the banks of the rocks into which the canal had been dug were green and lush. The whole ensemble created a stark contrast to the parched fields and gardens of the region and reminded us quite a bit of the Karl-Heine Canal back home.

When the canal was commissioned by Napoleon I in 1805, it was supposed to stretch 44 km from La Rochelle to Niort. But as so often happens, the project was not completed and ended in 1875 after 24 km in Marans, so the planned north-south connection never came to fruition. Rail transport had taken over by then. In the Saint-Léonard Tunnel, we could cool off for a moment before we walked along the bank to the Pont de Belle-Croix.

When we left the artificial valley and made our way back home, the summer temperatures caught up with us again, so we took another shower when we returned to the campsite.