North and South of La Rochelle we are in marshland, providing the best day's birding of the trip. Our first ever sighting of a Purple Heron, right by the path as it struggles to eat an enormous fish, then a close encounter on the quiet canal route with a Night Heron.
Purple Heron
Turtle Doves coo at us from trees, and shelduck whizz low overhead. Hares watch from ploughed fields, where poppies are a blaze of colour. Mussel and oyster farms abound, as we skirt the shore.
Our Warmshowers hosts live about 30 miles N of La Rochelle, in a large stone farmhouse, set in what they describe as an "English" garden. The house is almost hidden under Virginia creeper, roses ramble over the outbuildings and chickens run around the kitchen garden, cropping artichoke, broad beans, herbs and tomatoes.
Location:Rochefort to St Gemme-la-Plaine
