Day 4 - Beauvoir to Saintes

Today was meant to be a travel day from Beauvoir to Saintes, but it ended up being much more than that!!

We set the alarms for 7:00, and were on the road just before 8:00. First stop was a couple blocks away at the bakery. Some pastries, a couple of baguettes, and one beurre et jambon sandwich and we were well stocked up to get on our way!!

Yummy #1!!!

Yummy #2!!!

Yummy #3!!!

Next stop was at a service station somewhere between Rennes and Nantes. The only reason I mention i it is because the lady at the cash was so nice. We had a very quick but kind conversation and she gave us three Paris Olympic Coca-Cola commemorative cups to go with the three Pepsis we bought.🤣

Our plan today included stopping somewhere suitable to attend a Remembereance/Armistice Day ceremony.  At 10:00 we were just passing Nantes.  By 10:30 we were coming up to a small commune called Geneston.  Mandy quickly looked it up and confirmed they had a couple of ceremonies going on.  We parked near the church and saw some people gathering at the town hall.  There were a number of seniors in military uniforms with medals who were lead down the block to the church by four flag bearers.  We followed the procession and attended the service which lasted about twenty minutes.  The church was old, ornate, and very impressive.  From there we were led across the lawn to the fallen soldier monument where more community members had gathered for another ceremony.  We had a minute of silence followed by school children taking turns reading out about fifty names of fallen soldiers from the town - we were asked to say “Mort pour la France” (died for France) after each name was read out.  It was a very emotional moment for us, thinking of Poppa and Great Uncle Ken having been here some eighty years ago fighting to liberate France.

Flag Procession Heading To The Church

Church Just After The Ceremony

Community Service In Front Of Fallen Soldier Memorial

As we were leaving we were approached by one of the locals - we must have stuck out for some reason. 😊 He thanked us for attending, and invited us to a community reception.  We were very grateful, however with a fair amount more driving still to do we had to keep moving.  It felt very nice nevertheless.

Next stop was to see a menhir.  Menhirs are large upright standing stones placed in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European Bronze Age (2100-1550 BC).  They also feature prominently in the Astérix et Obelix illustrated books which I was very fond of as a child.  We had been taking to Ger and Aud about them this week, and just on intuition Amanda looked it up as we were leaving the ceremonies.  The closest one was just off our route 5 km down the road.  Perfect!!  It was well marked. We pulled in and walked across a small field to get to it.

JM And The Menhir

Audrey And The Cows

Back on the road again Audrey took a quick poll to see if we should stop at what looked to be a fairly big beach.  The consensus was yes, and so about an hour later we pulled in at Châtelaillon-Plage.  It was a very beautiful beach stretching pretty much as far as we could see in both directions.  The sand was super fine and I imagine the beach and the town is an extremely busy place in the summer.

Chatellaillon-Plage

Trois Putains Exploring The Beach

Back in the car we had about half an hour of driving left.  With a couple hours before our rooms would be available we decided to do a little exploring.  First we stopped at the Arch of Germanicus, an ancient Roman arch built in approximately 18 or 19 AD. It has two bays and was originally sited over the terminus of the Lyon to Saintes road.  After admiring the arches for a little while, and walking around the neighbourhood and river la Charente we headed over to Les Arènes De Saintes, a roman amphitheater built in 40-50 AD.  It is currently under renovation, but we were able to get some good views, and were amazed by the size and grandness of it.  Capable of sitting as many as 15,000 people it was used for gladiator battles, ceremonies, and other shows.  It was very cool to see the Roman history in real life.  It is again hard to imagine how these structures were built so very long ago.

Gerry and JM Under The Arches

Arènes De Saintes - Basilique Saint Eutrope

With a full day behind us we hit the grocery store and checked in at tonight’s hotel.  Tonight’s dinner would be an ad-hoc charcuterie board in our hotel room.

Hotel Dinner

We had a short walk after dinner and are now relaxing in our rooms before bed.  We are headed to Carcassonne tomorrow for a couple of days and are looking forward to exploring the cloisters and walled city, inspirations for one of our favourite family board games.

Merci beaucoup tout le monde, et à demain!!