I met two of the nicest people in La Rochelle, and the three of us set off for a day of adventure on an island called Ile de Ré. This is one of France’s more exclusive summer retreats. The population booms in summer and the property values have boomed as well. It was a perfect day. Like summer!
You get to Ile de Ré via a toll bridge that is about 3 km long. Here’s a picture of the bridge looking back from the first town on the island.
The island is 80 percent protected from development, and there are rules about building height and even paint colours and the types of vegetation you can plant. There are more than 100 km of bicycle paths.
We drove almost the length of the island (it’s 30 km long) and stopped at Arse en Rè. We had a stroll around the town. Very peaceful and beautiful. Although when one is English speaking and one knows someone named Ray, it makes it difficult to say the name of the town without smiling. 
This is a vehicle from the Mayor’s office. Well, City Hall at least.
Notice the colours are all blue or green.
I did spot a rebel non-white house in the crowd. 
This is an artist’s sign.
It continues down to the street! There are several artists in Arse en Rè.
What a great place to grow your flowers!
This is the church in Arse en Rè. You can see it from almost everywhere in the area and it was used by sailors at sea as a landmark as well. 
Being a tourist destination Ils de Rè has lots of industry, but some of those that don’t rely on tourism are clam and oyster farming, and salt production. Here they produce fleur de sel – the caviar of salt. This is a salt “field” (salt marsh).
There have pretty extreme tides in this part of the world.
It was time to stop for lunch and we went to the restaurant of a friend. It’s called Aux Frères de la Côte. We sat outside and enjoyed the sun and the beautiful view. It was wonderful.
And the food was perfect. Another product of the island are these little potatoes. Yummy!
What a great morning!
Love to you all.
A Canadian in France 