Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside

We spent Easter weekend in Charente Maritime with our friends A & B for the second successive year. (Be careful, A & B, this is in danger of becoming a tradition!) This suits us greatly because not only are we able to spend a wonderfully relaxing, and usually side-splitting, weekend with our friends, we also gain the benefit of attending the main Easter services (Good Friday and Easter) at our Anglican church. These are celebrated in English and there are good old traditional Easter hymns so we get much more out of them than if we went to our local RC church. There is also a more worldly advantage as there is a wine producer in A & B's village who sells a rather good, and remarkably reasonably priced, white wine of which we've become rather fond.

The weather was gorgeous over the weekend and we weren't at all sorry when A & B suggested an outing to La Rochelle. As well as being remarkable beautiful, La Rochelle has one of the best climates in France with more days of sunshine than even the Côte D'Azur.

We weren't let down; the weather there was fantastic. We found, miraculously, a parking space right by the port and, after strolling through the craft market, we ate moules frîtes in the Café Leffe on the waters edge and then had a good stroll around town.

The place was packed and we were able to spend a pleasant half-hour over a drink watching people enjoying the sun, not to mention an ice-cream or two.

As usual we we were royally looked after by A & B and, although we always enjoy getting back to our chateau, we were sorry to leave. We did, however, remember on this occasion to take a photograph of some fun sculpture in one of the towns we pass through on our journey.