Yesterday, the Boudeaus took us to Île-aux-Moines, an island that is a 90 minute drive plus an hour boat ride from Nantes. Translated, Île-aux-Moines means island of monks. Learn about its history via Wikipedia.

It was an absolutely fantastic day. Although we had to get up at 6:30 and move out of our first AirBnB in Nantes, the early rise only provided us more hours to enjoy the day. The weather was perfect, as was the company, which included Laurent and Sandrine Porcher, the Boudeaus good friends and rapidly becoming ours (savvy blog readers will recall that Melinda and I provided English “lessons” to a girl named Alice, the Porcher’s oldest daughter).

On the island, we rented bikes and rode every trail on it. We stopped several times, once to eat lunch and enjoy a beach, another time to go into the water (Melinda got up to her knees), and other times to just enjoy the spectacular views. For context, the islands in this area of France are very similar in look to the San Juans.

Returning to the mainland at about 7pm, we spent an hour looking for a place for dinner that could seat the 6 of us. Once located, we sat on a balcony overlooking a marina filled with sailboats as the sun slowly set. Dinner was moules frites (look it up), complemented with cold Muscadet.

We then drove back to Nantes, arriving home at about midnight to shower and sleep.

Yes, that was a pretty good day.