Tip: Never actually expect you’re going to get into a French port

The bad element of this particular stop on the cruise was that Princess Cruises were not very good at explaining what was happening here, which was a shame. Their remarks both on the paper and over the ship’s speakers implied to us that our excursion was possibly still viable (especially as it was inland and roughly equidistant from the original and new French ports), only needing a different pick-up point for the coaches. This was not the case as we eventually discovered after wandering into the shore excursions centre on the night before landfall to enquire as to its status: it had been well-and-truly cancelled but look, here are some other trips we can book you on! We declined a booked excursion.

The great element of this particular stop on the cruise was that La Rochelle was utterly gorgeous and everyone who’d been to it and Le Verdon-sur-Mer before agreed it was a much better destination. Indeed, a cynical person might wonder why a cruise line would choose the latter port (nowhere near anything of much interest) over the former (plenty of things for people to do on their own) in the first place. But who’s cynical?

The view from our balcony on Sapphire Princess on the morning of our only French stop of the cruise was towards the small island Île de Ré, connected to the mainland by the Pont de Ré.

Having declined a booked excursion we took advantage of the free shuttle bus service provided by Princess and/or the La Rochelle port authority and ventured into the coastal city (about 15-20 minutes away, I think) for an explore on our own for a change. We were dropped off along the Avenue du Général de Gaulle not far off being opposite the tourist information centre where we were reminded about the last bus back to the ship and left to our own devices. One of the first things you’ll see in this area of La Rochelle is one of those big wheels that seem to have popped up across the world in every major city with something worth looking at from the air.

West of us as we’d got off the coach was an area of parkland and an open square near the city’s aquarium. Our plan was to visit that later (and we would; that’s in a future post) but our attention was drawn to the medieval towers along the walls protecting the Old Harbour (Vieux Port) so we headed roughly north as that’s where everyone else was heading. This took us past an area where a small set of amusement rides were set up, a statue to heroes of the city, and one of two lighthouses in the port area, this one being coloured green for navigation purposes.

We hugged the harbour and its marina area and made our way down the Quai du Carénage towards the nearest of the three tours, the Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle. The view from this part of La Rochelle was gorgeous, taking in the fairly quiet port area and the medieval fortifications as well as the numerous establishments set up to take advantage of the scenery. Summer evenings in La Rochelle must be fantastic.

As we approached the tower we discovered that a pedestrian swing bridge was currently open to allow a couple of yachts to exit and enter a small quay. Not the most amazing of things to witness but it was the first time I’d seen one in operation so I had to take some video (removed).

Across the swing bridge we found the second of the two lighthouses, this being the red counterpart to the one we’d seen before, as well as a little bit of street art. We didn’t know it at the time but that street art marked the northern boundary of a small area of La Rochelle called Belle du Gabut. We would be spending quite a bit of time in there later in the day (and, again, in a later post).

There were a number of people around the Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle as we approached but they quite clearly were not venturing inside the tower. We even saw one group approach the door, look at a sign, shrug, then leave. This made us suspect that we couldn’t get in which would have been a shame except this wasn’t true; it’s been a while since I studied any French but my skills were just enough to understand that the tower would open at 10:00 (it was a few minutes before that at this time) and that there were prices for entry to one, two, or three towers, but one of them (not this one) was closed for repairs and prices were reduced a fraction accordingly. I was quite pleased with what I’d read and so we spent the time before the door to the tower opening taking a few more shots of the scenery of the city, remarking to ourselves that a large bank of cloud seemed to be descending rather quickly. Luckily, this would burn off in due course and our views from the towers (next post) were not unduly hampered.

The first of the towers that we ventured into was…

Tour Saint-Nicolas De La Rochelle

Situated on the eastern side of the harbour entrance and the obvious first stop was Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle, one half of the gateway to the harbour. This tower and the one opposite it were built from the mid to late 1300s. The original plan was to create an arch between the towers as well although this was never realised.

The foundations of this tower were wood, driven into the mud of the water basin, but the tower itself is so heavy that there is a very slight lean to it. It’s still perfectly safe to explore these days, though, and a series of steep, spiralling staircases and narrow corridors curving around the inside of the tower wall and offering entry points into the central, circular section at a number of spots eventually lead up onto the roof where some excellent views of La Rochelle and the surrounding region can be seen. We’d timed our visit to coincide with a bank of low-level cloud so the French city wasn’t quite as pretty as it could have been but as you’ll see from the photos of the next towers we visited that cloud quickly evaporated in the pleasing breeze and rising temperature of the day.

Tour De La Chaine

Getting to the second of the towers required us to retrace our approach hugging the harbour on our left and around the attractive waterfront shops, bars, and restaurants.

The Tour de la Chaine (or Chain Tower) is the western side tower guarding the entrance to La Rochelle’s harbour. This was the tower that controlled access to the port and as you might be able to guess from its name it did this using a chain that could be strung between it and Tour Saint-Nicolas either for defensive purposes or to ensure that tax was duly applied to arriving or departing vessels. In fact, the chain itself was originally controlled from a smaller tower alongside this one although that was removed in order to widen the entrance.

This was the tower that was closed when we visited although, on seeing the door was open, we ventured inside where we were told that we could pass through and onto the small, fortified area closer to the harbour entrance. We did, because we could, and so that I could snap a few photos. If we’re allowed to go somewhere then you can pretty much guarantee we will just to say we have because that’s what travelling’s all about for us.

Tour De La Lanterne

The most visually impressive of the three towers was the Tour de la Lanterne (or Lantern Tower), situated at the western end of the Rue sur les Murs, the same section of defensive wall that housed the Tour de la Chaine. This “road on the walls” featured some attractive architecture among its houses’ designs.

Built in the middle of the 1400s the Tour de la Lanterne is the oldest lighthouse on the Atlantic coast and if that’s not a good enough reason just to visit it then I don’t know what is. My advice if you’re visiting, though, is to hang around and wait for a bit outside if you see a queue or a large group of people entering. The entry doorway is narrow and the actual route into the tower is on your right as you pass in. However, to gain entry you have to head into a small room straight ahead to have your “three towers” ticket approved or buy a single ticket, then head back out and through the door you passed on the way in. This is fine if there are only a few of you. This was chaotic when we turned up as it was a heaving mass of bodies trying to head one way then another then squeezing past. But still very worth it.

In addition to serving as a lighthouse and providing obvious defensive capabilities to the city of La Rochelle the tower was also a prison for a long period. The interior walls are filled with carvings in the stone from former prisoners, some of the more important of which are highlighted or explained in further detail on plaques as you ascend the structure. It’s incredibly fascinating to see some of the writing, the dates, the artwork even of formerly-incarcerated people long dead and it’s shocking just how many people there were held at a time in some of the rooms; it must have been hell in there.

It’s not a true holiday for us unless we’ve climbed to the top of some steep structure panting and sweating and shaking our heads wondering why we put ourselves through such torture. But we know why really, and that’s so we can get great views from wherever we are. Climbing to the top of the Tour de la Lanterne and looking all around La Rochelle was a fabulous experience. The clouds were little more than distant haze at this point and the warmth of colours along with the contrast of the blues of the sky and sea against the greenery of nearby parkland and the red-tiled, white-walled buildings of the city was an absolute joy to behold.

The walkway around the former housing for the lantern that gave the tower its name and lighthouse-functionality is only wide enough for one person at a time and there is no indication as to which direction you should head around it. Expect lots of reversing and trying other directions and repeating that until you finally make the circuit. A minor inconvenience for that wide, beautiful landscape in every direction and so you can say that you reached the highest point on the tower.

If you’re visiting La Rochelle then it’s really worth the effort and very reasonable price to spend an hour or so exploring the three towers protecting its old harbour area. Each tower has its own charm and associated bit of history and each provides unique views of the city that you shouldn’t miss.

We had plenty of time as it was still early so decided to take a circular route back to the harbour area of La Rochelle through the nearby park as much just to take a stroll that would provide shade from the increasingly warm day as to see whether it had anything to offer. Leaving the Tour de la Lanterne we continued west a short way, passing through a doorway set into the remains of the city wall called the Porte Des Deux Moulins (Door/Gate of the Two Mills, though I couldn’t tell you why). In the photo now above you can see that gate on the left side if you follow the line of the walls.

This took us to a short bridge over a narrow river or stream coming out of the park and into the sea. The numerous drainage ditches and canals of the park itself are fed by two rivers, Lafond and Fétilly, though which one of these we were crossing I can’t say. What I can say, though, is that it reeked to high heavens here. The water was not exactly fresh and the reason for this becomes clear with a little more of the history of the park, coming up soon.

The other side of the bridge saw a small café area with some seating and some street art adorning its rear; not the best example but I always try to capture photos of local artistry wherever I go. It might be useful to know that you can get some food and drink at the southern end of the park, though, if you’re visiting La Rochelle.

This brought us to the park itself. No fences surround it, it’s open all year long and free to wander through at your leisure. The history of the park is fairly interesting. Originally, the land that now forms Le Parc Charruyer was marshland (hence that smell) and given over to military forces most of the time, stationed outside the city walls. In the late nineteenth century, Marie-Adèle Charruyer, the daughter of a local, wealthy shipowner, Étienne Charruyer, and heiress to the family fortune, bequeathed 100,000 francs to the city in her will to establish a public park at the exit of the city. The land didn’t actually belong to the family but after her death it was this area that was subsequently cleared, drained, cleaned up, and transformed close to how it appears today.

The park was very peaceful; the abundance of foliage on the trees soaked up any external noise nicely and the dappled shade as we followed a path along a river’s edge dropped the temperature to something very pleasant indeed. Cycling routes through the park have been added in more recent times and Le Parc Charruyer covers an area of around 40 hectares, providing a pleasant walk of around two kilometres across its full length. We only walked about half this distance electing to turn back towards the city roughly in line with La Rochelle’s cathedral a little after we’d passed under a bridge with some graffiti of questionable quality (and yet still I took some photos (oh, me!))

If you’ve got the time when you’re in La Rochelle and fancy some peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle of the city then the park is a lovely little place to just absorb a touch of nature while you’re there.

Out of the park we headed back towards the waterfront area of La Rochelle. The direction we mostly wanted to head was southwards but the brightness of the sun directly ahead and the contrast from the cool surroundings we’d been in to the heat trap of the dry streets and stone-fronted buildings left us taking a zig-zag route to where we needed to be in order to jump into the shade of buildings or take a break from squinting at every opportunity. There wasn’t a huge variety in the architecture of the buildings we saw but the general style was very nice.

We eventually came out by the harbour at the Porte de la Grosse-Horloge, an attractive tower and gateway we’d seen across the marina when we’d first arrived in La Rochelle. A small square nearby with a number of attractive shops and a large mass of people shopping and just admiring the sights also sported a statue adorned with traffic cones, something statues appear to do worldwide.

The next thing we wanted to see – and the next post – would be La Rochelle’s aquarium, south of where we’d been dropped off at in the city. We braved the direct sunlight for a little longer and headed past the harbour towards it.

Aquarium La Rochelle is a hard-to-miss building on the quayside to the south of the tourist information centre and west of the city’s train station. When we arrived there was a queue of perhaps twenty people outside the building in a section that could clearly cope with a queue of a few hundred so we didn’t think that was too bad. However, it’s worth noting that the queue continues inside the building, doubling back alongside the queue outside so that twenty was probably closer to fifty.

Buying Tickets

There were signs outside advising people to buy their tickets online and I did consider doing that to skip the queue but ultimately opted not to; checking their site they recommend allowing two hours from purchase before using the ticket so it’s a good thing I didn’t try that.

It’s also worth noting that there appeared to be a couple of ticket machines inside the building too but nobody in the queue was using them so, again, I didn’t look them over. If you’re a general visitor to the city then you might want to look at either of those ways to beat the queue but if you’re a cruise visitor (and we were, this being the second stop on our week-long Sapphire Princess cruise) then you can present your boarding card at the desk for a small discount of two euros each. Weigh up the saving in money over the saving in time and make a decision there.

Tickets purchased, you enter a room simulating an elevator descent. After some rumblings and clankings a second door opens and you pass through a circular tunnel with cascading water around its edges.

From here on you’re in the main aquarium and you can expect the usual array of tanks filled with fishes and other forms of sealife plus plenty of information boards. La Rochelle aquarium is large, spread over two floors, and with very clean glass on the vast majority of tanks (commendable indeed with the number of children present during our visit) allowing for good, clear views of the aquatic life and plenty of chances for decent photo-taking. The ambient light – sensibly, like most aquariums – is very low, though, so you’ll need to ramp that ISO setting up on your camera.

I’m always pleased to see jellies in an aquarium. It’s long been a wish to have a wall of the peaceful, fluorescing creatures next to where I work so that any time I need a relaxation break I can just turn and look at them.

In addition to the marine-oriented nature of the majority of the exhibits in the aquarium there was also a tropical zone. We’ve been in some places like this before where the ambient heat and humidity plays havoc with your camera lens but I’m happy to report this wasn’t the case in La Rochelle. There wasn’t a huge amount to see in this area for me, although if you are a keen botanist you’re bound to find things of interest, but my wife has a thing for turtles, terrapins, and tortoises and she, at least, was pleased to see a fair few of the favoured creatures around.

There wasn’t anything unique about the variety of sealife on display in La Rochelle Aquarium but if you’re fond of this sort of diversion when you’re out and about then it’s a very good example and a recommended visit. The layout was particularly good, guiding you through the rooms with their tanks well, and even though the place was a little more child-heavy than I typically like (being a curmudgeon) it never felt crowded or too noisy.

By far the most impressive places were the full-wall tank-viewing rooms looking into impressively large volumes of water. In these rooms were rows of seating, much of which was filled when we were there by people quietly contemplating the view and immersing themselves in the serenity such an experience seems to exude. These were the places to see the sharks and turtles, both of which I’m always happy to see at an aquarium and both of which I’m sure are big draws for most people too.

Our plan, therefore, was to head due north from the aquarium back towards La Rochelle harbour. It was the place we’d seen the vast majority of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating and we figured that if we could find a spare table then the views looking back to the water and the towers beyond would mark a lovely end to a great day in a surprisingly excellent French city. As we started to walk, however, I glanced to my left and spotted the distant sight of some street art. It didn’t look like the most amazing examples of artwork but they were clearly bright and colourful and as this would only detour us a couple of minutes to take a look at off we went to take a nose and some photos.

Following the artwork around a corner we suddenly found ourselves in a square area surrounded by clearly temporary set-ups; walls of buildings were decorated in large art pieces too; there was a stage area (unoccupied but clearly ready for something to happen); tables of varying sorts with chairs of even more varying sorts were spread out around the place. We could see they sold beer and we were after beer and we could also see plenty of spaces to sit at so we shrugged (well, when in France…) and decided we’d try the place out, figuring we could always make our way to the harbour afterwards.

We ordered a couple of beers. A quick read from the selection on offer led us to choosing a locally-brewed ambrée.

“Deux ambrées, s’il vous plaît,” I said, my GCSE in French finally getting a workout after decades of inactivity.

“You would like small or large?” asked the woman behind the bar, instantly ascertaining we were not natives despite my best local accent.

“Large, please,” I responded.

“Oh, of course!” she said. “You are English!”

We laughed at this arguably justifiable stereotypical view of the nation’s drinking habits and I made a mental note to throw in a reference to shrugging when I eventually got around to writing this experience up as vengeance.

The beer was just what we needed. Cold, lovely taste, maybe a little more expensive than a pint back home but not scarily so. Served in plastic glasses so not perfect but you could understand why they were doing that. We took the weight off our feet and sat in the French sunshine, enjoying our drinks and soaking up the ambience of the area. Generally, when we’re travelling we prefer to do and see things rather than sit around and just eat or drink so when we do treat ourselves to some rest time like this it makes it more relaxing, more special, and that’s possibly why within minutes of simply sitting there and savouring the beer and surroundings we both agreed we loved the place and we might just stay for another.

I brought our empty glasses back to the bar and asked for another round.

“Oh, you want another!?” asked the woman at the bar, obviously expecting us to one-and-run from the place.

“We’re English!” I said, explaining everything and justifying her earlier remark.

I then mentioned how lovely this little area was and how much we loved the look and feel of the place (which seemed to surprise her) and asked more details about it. She explained that it was called Belle Du Gabut and was a temporary event, completely free, running from May until September, this being its second year in operation but hopefully not its last. Along with the beers to take back to our seats I was handed a flyer with some more information of the programme for May and some links (Facebook and Instagram) which do a good job of showing just how varied and interesting this part of La Rochelle is.

Our second drinks became third drinks and Belle du Gabut started to fill with more people (we didn’t hear anyone speaking anything other than French so it all felt very local and very much the sort of experience we like when we travel; there’s nothing worse than getting away from it all in the company of people just like you). On our third drinks someone from the bar area helpfully came across and put up a parasol over our seats giving us nearly the only shade in the space. There was possibly some concern that us foreigners might die in the relentless sun and put a downer on the day for everyone else or it might just have been luck where we were sitting; in any event, it was very welcome and we could look around the place with somewhat less squinting than we’d been doing.

We loved the laid-back bohemian or hippy vibe to Belle Du Gabut and the variety of things on offer (the majority of which weren’t open for business at the time we arrived, though). In addition to areas providing food, drinks, theatre performances, music, yoga, and massage we noticed an area for kids to play in and there were quite a few family groups present at this time too so Belle du Gabut certainly seemed to cater for everyone. Something that typified the whole feel of the place were the toilets: unisex cubicles decorated in different styles by different artists. We made sure to pick a different cubicle each time we went (three (or was it four by now?) beers in the sun made sure we had plenty of opportunities) so that we could take photos in all of them.

Finally, though, it came time for us to make our way from Belle Du Gabut back to Avenue du Général de Gaulle where we’d been dropped on arrival in La Rochelle in order to catch the last coach back to the cruise ship. I grabbed a few parting shots of some of the street art we’d passed on the way in and some occasional photos on the fairly short walk to the pick-up point.

Of course, one of the things about afternoon drinking and having a camera is that sometimes you take pictures of odd things and you don’t know why. Worse, sometimes you don’t even remember taking the photo. Finding this portrait on my memory card came as a bit of a surprise to me. I have no recollection of taking this man’s photo and couldn’t tell you who he was, where he was from, or why I took the picture.

He seems happy, though, and in a weird and surprising way he almost sums up this weird and surprising visit to a fabulous little part of La Rochelle, a city we would not hesitate to return to or recommend. And if you’re visiting there in the summer months and looking for something a little different when it comes to relaxation and entertainment then popping into Belle du Gabut is well worth some of your time too.