If you lived by the sea, wouldn't it be fine to go out at low tide and come back with a selection of clams, scallops, shrimps, crabs, oysters, maybe cockles, winkles and a few fin-fish? An interview in the French newspaper Sud Ouest with a 61-year-old woman who regularly collects a good haul of such on the shores of the Ile de Re in the French Department of Charente-Maritime! She has been at it since she was a young girl. It's a family-constructed dam or enclosure on the shore, built of rocks only, and may be peculiar to this island. The rocks are tightly wedged together but with several gaps to let the incoming and outgoing tide flow swiftly. At high tide the rocks are entirely submerged, so fish can swim in or over the top as well as enter through the gaps which are not quite open - wickerwork or iron grids make it less easy to get out. But this woman is chiefly interested in the shellfish, which, of course, are also cultivated in farms on the island, especially the oysters, which friends had with every dinner as a starter. The woman interviewed admitted that, whereas there was a time when she could come home with a bucket of clams, now she is lucky to get two kilos. Not bad, all the same. It all goes back to the Middle Ages when boats were scarce and fishing gear, viz. nets, not as developed as today. Even at the beginning of the century there were still 140 of these ecluses, as they are known in French. Today only 12 are operated in the 30-kilometre long island.
The island, say our visiting friends, is little short of paradise in summer. Lovely little villages; flowers everywhere, especially roses tremieres, the French for hollyhock. Sounds more elegant. They've got a little train on the island. Remember the Clifden train or the Giant's Causeway tram? There are extensive salt marshes too. Hence the donkeys' trousers. What? Yes, the donkeys, when they worked on the marshes, had to be protected from the mosquitos and what-not, when they stood, legs deep in the salt water. They were given sort of pull-ups both front and rear. Now things are mechanised and the donkeys wear these trousers just for the tourists. All in all, what a wonderful world.