JBH turns up en route to stop- 4

WE ARE OUT OF LA ROCHELLE before most folk are awake. Our exit is fault-free and the weather, after what I imagine was a pretty wet night,  has developed a bit more brightly by the time we shut off steam and apply the brakes at the ever reliable breakfast stop-off of Luçon. It is Saturday morning so the pressure is generally off, it has been easy to park and straightforward to get here.

The café is as usual. It has never let us down, and never been shut when we have called upon its services. It is just across from the cathedral as you will know from a previous post concerning this regular breakfast stop; the very café I scored as breakfast stop numero one back in my post of summer this year. You'll remember it I am sure. Their grand-crémes are the best and there are croissants available over the counter, or from the quality boulangerie opposite, should they be open, which they are only after the cathedral bells have indicated the passing of the ninth hour… 

Suitably refreshed, and as it isn't raining, we wander off in the general direction of the war memorial Adam wants to examine, passing by the bookshop where we purchased back in 2016 the wonderful Jean Benoît Héron 2017 Agenda, which at the time was a find indeed. Mme Melling wants to visit the shop to try and buy something or other, so we potter about until at 0915, the lights go on, the door is unlocked. For the second time ever we enter therein.

Mme Melling is disappointed (she'll try Amazon next) but ever the eagle eye, she espies, wonder of wonders, Jean Benoît Héron's latest publication. Shrink wrapped, a single copy. Des Courses et Des Phares.  Just published. My cup overflows. I am prompt with my mastercard.  What an excellent day this is proving to be! And what a chance! What good fortune. Luçon turns up trumps again!

I don't remove the shrink-w. until we are in our final hotel. The promise of the paper-to-boards graphics are fulfilled within. True, there is some text in the book, for some unaccountable reason in French, but never mind that, there are a whole load of new lighthouse elevations in here, from around the world, and all produced by JBH, the master. Oh my! It is a masterpiece. Some old friends, one or two re-draws of lights that have been altered in some way, sketches, and even the odd boat. All about the classic yacht race routes y'see and the phares encountered. Fastnet, Wolf Rock, even Plymouth gets the JBH treatment and scores two, three if you count Eddystone!

Sorry about this, I seem to have lost my thread. Ah yes. We were going to show young Adam Les Sables d'Olonne in this post. I think I'd better start again. I'll call that simply en route to stop-4.