Whilst in the Office du Tourisme earlier in the week booking the pêche à pied, there was a mention of a “promenade en mer” which sounded fun, so we duly booked that as well. They’d run out of leaflets so we were short on details, but we got to the NW corner of the island at the right time (funny how on this pretty small island there are such different characters in the component villages – L’Herbaudière is a fairly big port for fun sailing and fishing, and packed with restaurants of different types, even a hotel or two). The boat is O’Abandonado, a ~100 year or so old vessel with an interesting story (catching fish in Portugal, then delivering salt up to the 60s, then scuttled in mud to preserve it while the owner worked out what to do with it…then bought by a Frenchman in the 80s who cleaned it up, refitted it and brought it to France. And now it does little pleasure outings in the bay off Noirmoutier! Well, I thought it was great, but there was some seasickness in our little party and quite a few peaky-looking people on the boat. But nothing that a few ice creams afterwards couldn’t fix!
Timsformational 