La Rochelle!

Office de Tourisme

Two days after I finished my last final and the day before my birthday, I headed off to La Rochelle! The harbor city is a little over 2 hours from Bordeaux, and I got there at 10:45 in the morning and left at 9:20 that night. It was a really full day, and I felt like I could have stayed for weeks! La Rochelle is a really beautiful city, and it was a little extra interesting for me because my mom's family is from New Rochelle in New York, which was named after La Rochelle.

Let me say this, La Rochelle does tourism right. Walking from the train station to the Office de Tourisme was super easy, and even taking a detour to a post office was a breeze just following the signs. I had written down some instructions, but I didn't even need to take out my paper. Plus the streets were really clean, and it was a beautiful day outside. The Office de Tourisme itself is how all Offices de Tourisme should be. It was barely 10 minutes walking from the train station, and right downtown and next to the famous La Rochelle aquarium. It was air-conditioned and clean, and the staff were friendly and didn't switch  to English on me.¹ (Yes!!) And the bathroom. OH. EM. GEE. It was beautiful. It was clean and free. There was soap. There were seats. It was air-conditioned. Okay, I know after 9 months of traveling Europe, my standards for public restrooms were drastically lowered, but trust me, this was a gem. And in the lobby, there were lots of couches and not-useless pamphlets. It was great. I think I went back to use the bathroom like three times.

Anyways, on to the actual sight-seeing stuff. I mostly stayed in the Vieux Port (Old Harbor) area, which is breathtaking. The water is so blue and clear, and there's tons and tons of boats. And there are two old stone towers at the entrance to the harbor, and then a third tower a little ways down the shore. They look like the towers of a castle! So pretty! I walked out to this sort of outcropping which had a great view of them, just to take it all in.

Tour de la Chaîne and Tour Saint-Nicolas

Then I headed over to the tour Saint-Nicolas (the one on the right) to go inside. It turned out the towers were free for students!! And they gave me a booklet explaining each room too.² It was pretty interesting to learn how the old guard tower functioned, and the views from the top were amazing!! You can see the whole harbor and out across the town and the other two towers. Photos!

After that, I tore myself away from the sparkling blue water to check out the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) and the Cathédrale Saint-Louis. Just walking down the streets was also really beautiful. All the buildings are made of white stone, and everything looks really clean and perfectly maintained. The Hôtel de Ville was really pretty, even though parts of it were being repaired. The Cathédrale Saint-Louis was also in the middle of being restored, but breathtaking nonetheless! The lighting was so perfect, I got some awesome pictures of the stained glass. The rest of the cathedral and all of the altars and statues were also beautiful.

Hôtel de Ville

Cathédrale Saint-Louis

Next, I headed back to the harbor, and I went up the tour de la Chaîne (the round tower). Inside, they had some interesting exhibits on French settlers in North America. I looked for some mention of New Rochelle, but it was all on French Canadian settlements. Again, there were a ton of awesome views, including of the first tower I went up.³

I decided to check out Port des Minimes next. The ferry boats over there only left every hour, so I had to hustle over. Wikipedia tells me Port des Minimes is the largest pleasure boat marina in all of France, and I believe it! There are literally thousands of boats there; it was crazy! It was really pretty (how many times can I say that in one post?), but I was mostly taken away by the overwhelming number of boats. I decided to walk back along the shore to the harbor with the towers, and I think it took me a good half hour just to get past the marina.

Please ignore the panorama stitching error...

By the time I got back, it was already like 7:30, so I didn't have too much time left. As I walked around, deciding what to do next, I saw all these people with fabulous looking ice cream cones, and I knew I had to investigate. I did, and I discovered Ernest le Glacier! So délicieux. Since I'd been walking around in the sun all day, and it was my birthday the next day, I decided to just get a large ice cream cone as my dinner/dessert.⁴ May I just say, EXCELLENT DECISION, KATIE. This ice cream was delicious! Let's see, I think I got Café Cognac (turning 21 the next day, after all), Cara'sel (salted caramel), and Tiramisu. I ate it sitting on the edge of the harbor... the water, the sunset, the three scoops of delicious ice cream... it was all so beautiful, I'm tearing up a little right now.

My new friend :]

Before I had to head back to the train station, I made one last stop at a little beach by the tour de la Lanterne (the spiky tower). I found this cool little rock/crab creature, put my feet in the sand, and enjoyed the end of my day in La Rochelle. In case you haven't guessed so far, I definitely recommend going to La Rochelle if you're ever in southwest France!

À bientôt!⁵

1. The lady I talked to actually offered me a map in German! Haha
2. And this person offered me a guide in Spanish! :O Haha I can see German, but I'm pretty sure I don't look/sound Spanish at all.
3. Also, this is random, but there was this dark, cool video room up at the roof level, and I distinctly remember stopping to reapply sunscreen here. Like I can smell the sunscreen. Crazy.
4. I mean...
5. Sheesh, is it almost August already? I need to pick up the pace!