Exploring around Palmyre - Saturday, 9 August 2003

Palmyre is a small holiday town of no architectural distinction, but great fun in season, with markets, stalls selling fish, vegetables and crustaceans, and a big zoo. We enjoyed an assiette de mer for a very reasonable price in a restaurant overlooking the anse with Razzmatazz happily at anchor.

We unshipped the bikes and cycled through the pine forests and the seaside towns to Royan, stopping for swims and showers at several of the beaches en route. Royan, which is the main yacht port at the entrance of the Gironde struck us as a rather dowdy place, all rebuilt since the allies bombed it to ashes at the end of WW2.