Chikungunya or fruit flies?

Back in 2008 my mom and I travelled to France armed against mosquitoes, as my French teacher came from Bordeaux and always talked about the numerous mosquitoes.  We had no problem and since living in France I also had no problem with mosquitoes.  When going into the forest, we always go armed with our citronella oil, enough to chase mosquitoes away in a km distance. Hence the last thing that was on my mind when packing for holiday was mosquitoes.
My agony started the evening of the birthday celebrations in Fouras.  Whether they prefer foreign blood rather than French blood I don't know, but I was the one in the crowd to be eaten. 
In île d'Oléron slowly but surely I got more decorations on my skin - some being small spots, but others swelling like dove eggs. While working in St Georges I felt my bum burning, the bastards bit through my clothes, two bites next to each other, resulting in a 3x1.5cm bulb. And more to follow. By Saturday morning we stopped in St Trojan on our way to the beach, JL went searching for a pharmacy to find something that will keep all these horrible stinging things away from me while I sat down at a café waiting for him.  I was not so impressed when I heard that the pharmacist told him he is so lucky that all these stinging insects prefer his wife and not him!
The insect repellant indicated it works against Chikungunya, reminding me of this mosquito from Asia that arrived earlier this year in France.  I remembered vaguely a story about a woman from Bordeaux ending up in hospital. Fortunately I couldn't remember the detail and decided I'll rather not try to dig in my memory.  The cortisone cream was suppose to help against the damage that already occurred.  I do not like cortisone, but by then I was so desperate with swollen arms, itching, I could have bathed in cortisone if that would have helped.  Alas, the cortisone gave some relieve, but not completely.  And the insects were already immune to the insect repellant. 
When I ran out of my one petite marseillaise shower gel, I've realised it was the flavour 'peach and nectarine'.  Thinking, perhaps these insects thought I'm a soft juicy peach, they'll like the new flavour of raspberry mixed with flowers less.  Alas, not much improvement and they continued to feast on me.  With JL starting to think I'm dreaming of being bitten, it is impossible to be eaten like that and he's not bitten. Since then he had a few bites - and I had many more.  In fact, while writing this, I got two new bites, itching and I'll finish that I can turn to my cortisone cream. Summertime in the Charente is not for sissies!

Below: during our visit to the salt museum JL teased me while standing next to this huge mosquito in the section on the region's biodiversity, pretending he is also a big mosquito bzzz-ing