To witness all this, a good few kilometres need to be covered. A bike would do, but I went one better: a tour by Piaggio motor trike customized in Thailand, the brainchild of a retired port worker named Christian Rivollet.
Seated on a white leatherette bench seat you putter round, while M Rivollet’s stentorian voice at the controls in front regales you with one of the best tour guide spiels I’ve ever encountered, from the complete social economic and cultural history of greater La Rochelle to the personal affairs of its inhabitants, most of whom he seems to know.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
For more information on La Rochelle and the Charente-Maritime please visit:
Fares from London to La Rochelle start at £111 standard class return per person (2015).
For bookings and more information:
Voyages-sncf Travel Centre, 193 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EU
I owe to M Rivollet my suspiciously detailed knowledge of the old red light district of Laleu and one of the last sailors’ bars - Les Bons Copains since you ask – on the port side highway once known as the Boulevard de la Soif when it was lined with seamen’s drinking dens.
For the time being, the Piaggio tours are restricted to the three people the rear seat will take, which is probably a good thing, because the day you start to see little trains full of tourists heading out to the suburbs will be the day to give La Rochelle a miss. In the meantime, like all great ports, it’s well worth staying long enough to get below the surface.