Along the French Atlantic coast

...after a few technical problems with our memory card, we can finally continue in the blog...

Due to the weather, we "escaped" from Spain... The weather forecast for France had promised improvement from Saturday. So we arrived in France on Friday evening and chose a campsite in St. Jean de Luz, right by the sea. There was a small spot available for two nights, just big enough for us. As soon as we parked the car and set up the awning, a storm started. Lucky us. The next day, as promised, the sun came out and we had a nice day at the beach. Once again, we did everything right... ;-) In the afternoon, we rode our bikes into St. Jean de Luz. We had been there a few years ago and knew that it's a very beautiful small town for strolling and right by the sea. For a city, it has a really great beach, which was of course crowded - weekend and finally the sun is out! After exploring the city, we rode back to the campsite and enjoyed the sunset in the small bar right next to the campsite. It was a long night, not because we got stuck in the bar, but because we sat in front of the bus later and started a spontaneous WhatsApp chat with our friends Stephi & Sascha, which went on late into the night and we ended up separate/together... Oh, how we laughed. Sorry again dear camping neighbors...

On Sunday, we had to leave the campsite, so we decided to stay free for another night. Not so easy in France, because in recent years it has become a widespread issue, so that almost everywhere there are height restrictions that we cannot pass with our Miss Molly. But we found another spot near St. Jean, in Cenitx, where we can apparently spend a night without consequences. It was a bay, ideal for surfers, so we had a lot to see there. Even though we don't surf ourselves, it's great fun to watch the surfers. So we quickly prepared our food in the parking lot and took everything to the beach and enjoyed our picnic at sunset. Wonderful! There were two super nice bars on the beach and next to the parking lot, so we were also taken care of in terms of drinks.

We spent the next day near St. Jean, at Camping Inter Plages, where we had been before a few years ago. The place is okay, nothing special, but if you're lucky enough to get a spot right at the front (we were lucky!), you have a great view over the bay and can watch the surfers from here.

Then we drove a bit further up the Atlantic to Capbreton. Here we spent 2 nights at a municipal campsite. Again, nothing special, but it had a free washing machine (which was not unimportant for us...) and was only about 10 minutes' walk from a mega beautiful beach behind the dune. There were huge waves, so we had a lot of fun in the water. So for 2 days, we just hung out at the beach and read and played in the waves like little kids ;-) It was necessary!

The next stop was Biscarrosse Lac, a lake about 10 km away from the coast. We just wanted to go paddleboarding again, which is rather difficult in the Atlantic for us at least. The first place we had chosen was actually very nice, about 5 minutes from the lake and quite small. But in the early evening, a group of guys in their mid-20s arrived and moved into the bungalows near us... and partied with loud techno music and shouting. So we "escaped" to the lake for the evening and spent a relaxed and quiet midsummer evening there on the shore.

Well, it was clear that we didn't need another evening like that, so we found another campsite by the lake that even had its own beach. It was also busy there, but we found a quiet spot on the grounds. So we could relax by the lake and inflate our paddleboard again and take a few laps on the lake. One day, we also took a bike ride around the lake. All very relaxed.

After the weekend, we were drawn back to the sea, so we drove to Biscarrosse Plage. We knew from a previous vacation about a parking spot in the forest for only €10 per night. And we found it again and even got a spot. In the meantime, it's no longer a secret tip, it was quite crowded... But you stand in the middle of the forest, everyone has their little private space. And you only have a short walk through the dunes to the beach. We also spent a great day at the beach and studied the travel guide a bit to decide where we want to spend the last few weeks.

So we decided to go to Soulac sur Mer. We had been there before, but back then we wanted to go to a small campsite that was still closed. So we headed there and it was open and they had a spot for us! Beach-wise, Soulac, or Amelie-Plage where we stayed, isn't that great. But the campsite is really nicely done, lots of flowers and plants, a nice little pool, no animation, lots of Bulli-drivers. A nice and relaxed place. The next day, we also rode our bikes into Soulac. It's a typical holiday town with small shops, cafes, souvenir shops, and a small market. But the beaches there are nice again. Since we also had over 30 degrees, after exploring the town, we went straight to the beach and spent the rest of the day there. In the evening, we met two English people, Tracey & Mark, and spent a great evening with them in the bar.

Then we drove a bit further back down the coast because I really wanted to go back to Hourtin Plage. The weather was great, mega hot (39 degrees), so off to the beach. On the way there, we also visited the market in Vendays-Montalivet. When we arrived in Hourtin, we first looked for a spot. The only campsite there was very expensive, so that was out of the question and there was also nothing really great nearby. We read in our Park4Night app that we can spend the night in a parking lot in Carcans Plage (not far away), so we parked our car there and went to the beach. We had a delicious picnic on the beach and probably stayed there until midnight, but it just didn't get cooler. Eventually, we went back to the bus to sleep. We didn't last long, it was so hot! So armed with a picnic blanket and pillows, we went back to the beach and tried to sleep there. At first, it was great, but around 4 am it got cool because the humidity was so high. Everything was damp, so back to the bus. What a night! We were both completely exhausted and sleep deprived, but it was already another exciting adventure :-)