Il de Re

We had rain overnight and it was still drizzling when we woke up this morning. As the forecast wasn’t good for the rest of the day we had a lazy start and decided to do our weekly shopping today rather than tomorrow.

We emptied and filled before hitting the road to the Il de Re. The bridge to the island has an €8 toll which was originally intended to just pay for the cost of construction but has since been extended and become just another tax! We crossed the bridge and headed to Lidl on the outskirts of the capital, Saint Martin.

After filling the fridge and our cupboards with goodies, we drove the short distance to the Aire de Camping Car which is situated just inside the city walls. The wind has picked up and the rain has stopped so it’s looking good for this afternoon.

After lunch we set out to explore Saint Martin. This is another of the isolated, heavily fortified old cities which are quite common in this area. We headed through the middle of the city and down to the harbour. It’s very quiet, most of the shops, cafe’s and restaurants are closed and there aren’t many people around. We imagine this place will be very popular in season. The harbour is full of leisure boats and we wandered around checking them out.

The massive fortified walls drop 11m straight down into the sea and continue inland on either side of the city. We followed one of the walls back round the outside and discovered that there is yet another concentric ring of defensive walls, moats and triangular shaped defensive “islands” - most impressive!

We found a dark spiral staircase that descended inside the wall and came out in the - now dry - moat. We had a quick look at one of the many defensive “islands” before taking a tunnel up through the wall back to the inside. We carried on along the wall until we got back to Kiki.

After a drink and some chocolate we set out again along the wall and back to the sea. Here we turned right and soon came to the original fortified citadel which now seems to serve as an administrative centre. We walked around the outside of the citadel and found a circular route back to the main entrance to the city. More heavy defences here - two bridges with towers and a fortified gatehouse kept invaders at bay!

We returned to Kiki for our evening meal before settling down for the evening.