First Port of Call

France today. Our first port of call is La Rochelle which we LOVED!
It was a twenty minute shuttle bus ride to the town centre - through the docks and the industrial hinterland before being dropped at the beautiful waterfront.
It was so lovely to be back in France. And nice to arrive on a cruise ship!!
We had our pre-breakfast breakfast early - woken up by the room service man at 7.30am! I had cornflakes. With full fat milk and sugar. Heaven!! Mr K had a full English. 
We went up to the Lido for our actual breakfast - omelette, sausages, smoothie, waffle with chocolate sauce, and a strawberry yoghurt for me, another full English for Mr K. He likes to play fast and loose with his arteries!
Then we waddled down the gangplank to get the shuttle bus into La Rochelle.
We had such a lovely day. La Rochelle is gorgeous!
The bus dropped us of right by the harbour and we had a wander round to the Medieval towers guarding the harbour entrance. Apparently my Huguenot ancestors were imprisoned there in the olden days!!
As soon as the clock struck noon we sat outside a lovely harbourside cafe and had a couple of beers.We deliberately chose a cafe with no-one sat outside as opposed to some of the others which were busy. Crammed by fellow cruise goers!!
And I asked could we have drinks and not fish. Yay, go me!!
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the beautiful town - cobbled streets, Sixteenth century arcaded streets, patisseries, gorgeous shop fronts, the beautiful Cathedral, tree lined squares, the market (sadly closing when we got there which was a shame as it was crammed full of meat, fish and produce of all kinds. One to go back for!)
Once we had bought the obligatory fridge magnet we headed back to the ship. In time for tea, yay!!!!
We had a couple of hours on reading on deck before dinner.
Then a cocktail before collapsing into bed.
All this eating, drinking and sightseeing is hard work!!