Les Sables d'Olonne just had to be visited because it's famous for the Vendée Globe, the world's most prestigious round-the-world single handed yacht race. It's held every four years and the next race is this November 2012.

Our first morning was spent walking along the waterfront of the pretty fishing village of La Chaume, stopping first for a quick 'browse' in the many chandleries. Once this was out of the system we continued our walk along the front passing a number of bars, restaurants and shops all lining the prom. As we walked along the pier people were fishing with nets and rods just like in Pornichet.



In the afternoon we continued our walk into Les Sables, with its 'Quai Garnier' marina, town and beach.

There are significantly more bars and restaurants to choose from here compared to La Chaume, all lining the quay front. Every last one of them looked inviting but we didn't succumb and walked on continuing to the beach, passing loads of hobbie cats on the way - Trev, you would have been in your element!



The busy sandy beach is not as large as "La Baule" but just as clean. The tide was going out so we went for a paddle - it was lovely and so refreshing although I'm not sure if it's anywhere near the 21 degrees as our instrument suggested. We didn't think to take our cossies otherwise we would have gone for a dip ... well one of us would have anyway!

We spotted 'Stressbreaker' in Quai Garnier marina and caught up with Nick and Rona the following day spending a lovely afternoon with them - Thanks both. The last time we saw them was back in Camaret early on in the season and now they're making their leisurely way back home.

The weather over the last few days has been really great and we must say that we've also appreciated the late afternoon breeze that seems to arrive out of nowhere and lasts just a few short hours - we believe is called the 'vent solaire'.

Let's hope this weather continues for a while because we haven't had much of a summer yet!