This morning we left the Pyrenees for La Rochelle. It’s on the Bay of Biscay which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a six hour drive and more than one of that was mountain driving but Asa dis pretty good. We stopped once for fresh air (during the mountain part), once for lunch, and once for ice cream.

The way Nova eats her ice cream made for an extra long rest stop.

We arrived in La Rochelle and our Airbnb host met us and took us to the boat we will be staying on for two days. After unloading our things, we walked into town for dinner. Cal had spotted a jellyfish earlier and we saw it again when we were leaving the dock. The walk was really nice. There’s a beautiful walking path along the water and lots of interesting things to see along the way.There was a foot-bridge that split and rotated to let ships through.We arrived at the restaurant, Sushi Royal, and were not disappointed. We had miso soup, yakitori, yakisoba, sushi, and gyoza (fried Japanese dumplings). Asa had lycee juice with his meal. For dessert we had mochi ice cream. Stuffed full, we started our walk back. We stopped at a playground, nautical themed of course and took in other sights on our way.We went back to the wave sculpture and this time, the kids found a European rhinoceros beetle. Cal knew what it was right away. They can get to be almost 2″ long. This one is a male because he has a horn. We smelled a maple syrup scent on our walk (I noticed the same smell on the Sanguinaires) and finally figured out it was this plant, called curry plant. We are back at our Airbnb which is a little less glamorous (some lighting would be nice!) than we had hoped but it is very unique and the kids are excited about sleeping on our little boat tonight.