Havre-Aubert or bust

Today, it was a visit to Île du Havre Aubert, which involved an endless ride along the main road, Route 199, from L'étang du Nord to Havre Aubert. The two "islands" are connected by a vast dune and grassy marsh that provided zero shelter from the stiff headwind. We stopped mid-way to catch our breath and drink something as it was too windy to try and drink while riding with one hand on the handlebars.

Eventually, we made our way towards some trees at the beginning of the island and got a bit of a wind break. Then we were off towards the western section of Île du Havre Aubert called Bassin to visit our friends who come for the summer to their chalet...on the Chemin de la Montagne, of course. So, we traded the wind for a hill but finally made it after stopping midway to visit an Apple Orchard (Verger Poméloi-http://www.levergerpomeloi.com), which sold some very nice aperitif ciders laced with Calvados and a naturally fermented sparkling cider.

We got some for ourselves and a bottle for our friends just to have a bit more weight to drag up the hill and made our way to their very charming chalet.

After a tour of the place and lunch, they joined us for a ride down the other side of the hill to the west shore and around to the village of Bassin.

Our friends left us to return to the idyllic retreat on the hill and we carried on to the east end of the island to the village of Havre Aubert to check out the Musée de la Mer...which, of course, was closed by the time we got there. My fault as I spied a Bar Laitier on the way into town and required an urgent replenishment of calories.

En tout cas, we stood in the parking lot of the museum looking at the village and the harbour and Sandy Hook beach in the background when I noticed a couple of strange structures down the road that looked like some fancy flagpoles.

However, the sign identified the structure as a trebuchet, a type of catapult from the Middle Ages. When I went over to the other one there was a sign listing a record for the throw of a weight a certain distance and I could see in the water below a target had also been constructed!

This was certainly someone's "folie" but the only thing I could find online about it was a YouTube video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X5F12UsZuno

Unfortunately, it was not Saturday as the sign promised a demonstration at 1 pm so we started our return back to Gros Cap.

The wind was still strong but now it was in our favour and as we came onto the 199 towards the dunes we were flying along the shoulder of the road with Aeolus tickling our backs all the way. Really fun riding though we were worn out from the efforts earlier in the day.

Gros Cap with Auberge on far right

We picked up a few essentials (beer!) at the Dep before heading to the Auberge where we whipped up a fish stew with the remainder of the fish gifted by our L'étang du Nord fisherman saying another merci for his generosity.

A short stroll around the Cap to digest our meal and the day was over and we were pretty well done by the wind and hills and Sun.