The holiday within the holiday - part one

Monday morning sees us setting of for the 75 minute drive to Royan to catch the ferry across the mouth of the Gironde estuary to the Medoc. This 25 minute passage offered the prospect of a meandering drive through the vineyards of this part of Bordeaux. There was a small problem of the ferry in that the "driver" thoughtlessly locked the doors with the push button on the ignition key. This set the alarm and once the ferry go into motion the alarm went off. As luck would have it we were close enough to be able to reset the alarm, over and over again for the rest of the trip.

The meander down the Medoc didn't work out quite like that as there is very little wine growing until you are quite a long way down the peninsula around St Estephe. Our first stop was at Paulliac to view the Lynch Bages vines - very nice too.

We had a picnic lunch over looking the Gironde in the company a camel! Here's an update on camel diets, they don't like celery.

We drove out of Paulliac on the Route of the Chateaux which was delightful although more in the style of fancy farmhouses of viniculture like in Burgundy and not like the royal Chateaux of the Loire. Arcachon was our destination for the day and in particular Hotel Le Dauphin. [At present we are a bit confused because in days of old the heir to the throne of France was known as Le Dauphin but then again the Dauphin also seems to be the french for a dolphin...hmmmm...] The hotel staff were very good and the location was excellent even if the facilities were fairly average.
Arcachon is basically on a lagoon which creates a bay like vista that has clearly become very popular with holidaymakers and even day-trippers. As we left the town we passed through a very stylish suburb that clearly showed that the idea that Arcachon was developed for the wealthy of Bordeaux had some real basis. The centre and seafront of Arcachon is a bit architecturally conflicted with some really horrible seventies geometric concrete with a Basque influenced vernacular. I am tempted to think that when the french planning process gets it wrong it really gets it wrong!

We had excellent dinner at the Cafe de la Plage - restaurant Chez Pierre. Anika had a very glum face when she looked at the wine list as it was very expensive - the best value being 94 euro for a 2001 Chat Lynch Bages. Fortunately we realised she was looking at the "fine wine" carte and we had a very serviceable white at a very affordable price.

Tuesday's departure from Arcachon was via Pyla Sur Mer to visit Europe's biggest sand dune, 340 feet high and two miles long. To encourage responsible tourism they have created a large car parking area and camper van overnight area and a whole bunch of other facilities including a fibreglass staircase to walk up to the top of the Dune. It actually is quite amazing and well worth the stop.

The journey to Biarritz was intentionally slow, taking all the "B" roads we could find - well really "D" roads here in France and for the most part they are pretty good. Which means that they, and the area, is tres populaire with camper vanners. Lots of caravans are still about but it seems that the camper vans are really dominating that style of holiday. I will look this up in the map book and update later - we paased by a large lake that has clearly been developed into a resort area and pretty pleasing it was. Offers the thought of an away day from Nantilly for a lakeside expereince.

We kept seeing that the Autoroute was very busy and so felt quite smug about our route choice or we were until we hit the outskirts of BAB. There are three towns on the coast, Bayonne, Anglet and Biarritz and they form one conurbation, BAB, and all three attract tourists. Anglet seems to be a development of resort facilities designed to fill the coast between the two Bs. As we approached the outskirts we hit traffic - a lot of it. we were able to get a good look at the urban space as we made our way from the Northern outskirts of Bayonne to the old centre of Biarritz, the southern most town of BAB.

As you would guess along with all the traffic came the horrendous problem of parking and yes our hotel did not offer any parking and were singularly unhelpful abut the best course of action. Fortunately a space in the square outside the hotel came free and we took advantage of it to unpack the car and check in. We realised later that the hotel staff were not being unhelpful so much as merely expressing the locals' view to parking. They do the Irish thing of pulling up outside where they want to go and ignore all restriction. Having been in the car for a couple of hours and clambering out into the sunshine of Biarritz is that you are reminded of one of the negative things about having air-con in the car. You lose the sense of the "real" temperature and boy was it hot.

It took us a little while to settle into the hotel and its surroundings and really it was only after we discovered the two level roof top terraces that we understood it value. The first terrace was a dining area and we took all of our breakfasts there as well as a lunch and a dinner. The second terrace was up a level and laid out as a relax with a drink area. Both gave brilliant views as well as great vantage points to observe the life of the Old Port area.
More in part two and picture to follow.