Flat day fun

We have started to make the trip back north. After leaving Mimizan we have circled Bordeux in crazy rush hour traffic and headed back to Ile de Oleron. The sea is calm with no waves and none forecast for a while so we have been enjoying other activities. In four years of visiting this Island we have realised that we have not seen a lot of it until now. We have run along miles of beach and hiked around headlands. Looked at ports and even found out a bit about its history (it’s famous for making sea salt). We have had epic boules tournaments (Ruth being the victor). We have played table tennis (Sarah – we need some coaching!) and have tried to work on our balancing skills on the Indo Board we brought with us.
It is suddenly cold here – ok not England cold, but the weather seemed to change suddenly overnight. Apparently this is common around early October and all the French know to put away their summer clothes and get out the winter ones. Unfortunately we don’t have ours so we do look strange in layers of summer clothes.
After a couple of weeks of free camping we have pitched on a campsite (the last one open on the Island). We ended up next to another GB van. The man was from Northern Ireland and his friend she was from Angouleme in France. It was his 69th birthday so he invited us over for champagne. We had a great chat it is strange the French lady seemed to know more about England and Ireland than we did and we seemed to have seen a lot more of France than she had.
We are revising our plans today as there is a big fuel shortage in France and some problems in Paris where we are really hoping to head next to see Nina and Christian. We are hoping to fuel up and start making our way in the Paris/home direction and see what happens.