This past weekend, myself, Hitchen, and our friend Dana headed to La Baule on the west coast of France (just north of Noirmoutier ), to meet our friend Régis for a weekend of sailing on his boat, Steady Tension. I had never been on a sailboat before, so I was pretty excited. Plus, France was experiencing a major heatwave, so we were all looking forward to a cool sea breeze on the coast.

We left Paris around midday on Friday, and arrived in La Baule / Pornichet in the afternoon. Since we didn’t plan to sail until Saturday, we beat the heat by heading straight for the beach. A beautiful beach (Plage de Bonne Source).

After a little rosé and a swim in the ocean, we made our way to a restaurant, Julo le Bulot, for supper. The restaurant was located directly on the main beach in La Baule / Pornichet, and served the most amazing food. We ate, drank, and had a sing-along that lasted until the early hours of the morning.

Saturday morning we started our sail on the lovely Steady Tension, from Pornichet to the Island of Hoëdic, which took about 6 hours. It was the most fun!

Once we arrived in the harbour of Hoëdic and dropped anchor, we enjoyed a little apero and a beautiful sunset.

The island of Hoëdic has a population of just 300 or less, and has no cars! Just before the sun went down, we took the dinghy ashore, and headed to Café du Repos for a drink and a snack, before heading back to the boat for the night.

We sailed back to Pornichet on Sunday, just in time to catch our train back to Paris. A huge thank you Régis and Steady Tension for one of the best weekends ever!