End of the visit

On Sunday we looked for the famous Moulin du Sap restaurant, which is still on the tourist websites although it was for sale earlier in the year. Finally found it: closed, empty, not even a Sold sign on it. Such a beautiful building, slowly being drowned in creepers. From there it's not far to Port Maubert which has a small hotel-restaurant and a snack bar. We chose the snack bar crêperie, mostly because it has tables by the water. Cheap and very cheerful, and not bad for sausage-n-frites; they do a breton range of galettes too, all served with plastic cutlery and plates by the whole family including youngsters.

Monday was a fairly quiet day. We went out to local superette and bought tomato plants, and I was gently scolded by the shop-owner for buying pastries and ice-cream. He's such a flirt. The tomato plants were tucked into one of the big blue half-drums, which have been moved next to the terrace and therefore near the water-tap. One of them still has a box-hedge in it, nicely trimmed now, which needs planting somewhere.

Tuesday was the last day of the visit, so a special meal out was in order. After quite a lot of websearching we set off up the coast to the Moulin des Monards which we'd passed on Saturday. Somehow, finding it from the south proved difficult, and it was a waste because when we did get there it turned out to be closed on Tuesdays (not mentioned on any of the websites). We went back along the road to Touvent and into a hotel-restaurant on the main junction. It wasn't very appealing, and in the end we left and headed south to Lorignac. By this time the Lori had finished doing food; the Anglo restaurant in St Ciers du Taillon was open but full of some kind of event with bbq (I think it was the Anglo-Britannique monthly meet and we could have joined in but there was a huge queue for food). Back on the road to Mirambeau where we passed the Snack which didn't look suitable and went to the main hotel (too late for food) and the pizzeria (40 minute wait for it to be cooked). In the end, late and very hungry, we tried the Snack (L'Oasis), although it looked deserted. The owner said no problem, open for as long as we liked, and he had a better menu than the one on the board. A proper menu! I went for the 3-course for 11 euros, and the others selected from the carte. Excellent food. S finally sampled the local drink Pineau, and appeared to like it - W had one sip and when she looked at it for another it was all gone! The owner was friendly and cheerful and practised some English on us, and his two smallish sprogs laid the tables as more people arrived later. The tourist information says they are open until 11pm, but it was almost midnight when we left and the party was just warming up.