France has beautiful beaches on its Atlantic coast, and we spent a lovely day in La Rochelle and the surrounding area.
La Rochelle
On the seafront		The cute thing is, look in his sandal!
A boy being drawn by a street artist. Charity wrist bands were on Nick's bingo card.		Nick shops in the background.
We had buckwheat galettes for lunch, with bacon, honey, and walnuts.		This man sat beside us. I wondered how old he was because of the wrinkles around his eyes, but he later told us that he was 26 and had studied English in Exeter.
Just before leaving the restaurant, I walked in on a young chef who was changing our of his trousers. I tried to get a photo of him later on the street, but these two got in the way.		A man walking his dog in La Rochelle
After we left La Rochelle, we paid a lot of money to go across a bridge onto the peninsula that juts out into the ocean. We raced against time to reach the end to watch the sunset over the Phare des Baleines.
We took a lot of portrait photos on the beach as the sun was setting.		Lots of kites in the background
I collected sand to use in a shadow box frame for our miniature lead bathers we bought last year in Paris.		This is how I've displayed them back home.
These are the bathers.		The miniature sand castle is quite fragile!
This man seemed to struggle with his wetsuit...		...and isn't the light lovely?
Tired of the same old "picture face" I tried something different.
The best bit of our day didn't get photographed. Tired and hungry after a long drive, we stopped in a small town and bought a pizza which we ate on the beach by moonlight. It was such an unexpected, spectacular surprise, and one which I will always remember.
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