The last two days have seen Andrew and I celebrate birthdays – me first on the 29th January and Andrew the day after…in terms of birthdays, I have to say that it was one of the nicest even without all the traditional cards and pressies – many good wishes from family and friends all over the world made it really special…
One reason for coming down to this area in France was to catch up with friends that Andrew made when he was working down here – Dave and Tracey kindly invited us to go for dinner on my birthday evening…
Having looked at the map we could see that will take about 915 minutes to drive over from Soumeras to Aubeterre… Andrew thought he remembered the way to Dave and Tracey’s house but asked me to programme Snoop anyway… It’s a clever bit of kit that you do have to program it correctly! I put in the shortest route and not the fastest so consequently we went offroading a tad, but good old snoop got us to the front door – but that was after we had to backtrack as Andrew didn’t recognise any landmarks and thought we’d gone wrong…!
We spent a lovely evening with Dave and Tracey who cooked us a delicious meal – the bottle of red went down very well too – as Andrew was driving, it was up to me to do it justice! Lots of chat and laughs before we headed back to Woody – the quick way this time (Andrew programmed Snoop!)
The following day – Andrew’s birthday – saw us head off for Arcachon – we’d heard about Europe’s biggest sand dune so went off to check it out…Arcachon is about 30km south of Bordeaux so meant 1 ½ hours drive – the weather was sunny and mild so off we went…I drove there via a very odd bit of road – the last 30kms out of Bordeaux were through what seemed to be one long continuous town – with LOTS of roundabouts – LOTS of humps in the road to slow traffic and LOTS of trucks…so it took a wee while longer than we anticipated! Just as we thought the end was in sight, we spotted a McDonalds…yeah, yeah – I know what you’re thinking…but we were in need of a McFlurry – and it was Andrew’s birthday after all…
OH MY GIDDY AUNT! Never seen anything like it – it was a feeding frenzy – a MacDonald’s in the middle of nowhere (actually on the edge of an industrial estate – by a main road…) was FULL to bursting – it seemed the whole world and his wife were there – it was pandemonium – we didn’t even get through the door (well we did, just to use the loo) before we ran for our lives! A surreal experience and one, which I suspect, will put us off MacDonald’s for life – or maybe we’ll just have the occasional MacFlurry…
We eventually found Arcachon and parked on the quayside overlooking a marina – every type of boat imaginable was moored up there – from tiny fishing boats to big fancy cruisers…and lots of noisy seagulls…lunch was a picnic of French bread and cheese, salad and apples…
Off to find the dunes – the drive took us all along the coast where the huge beaches had all been manicured and combed by tractors…looked a bit weird as there were few people walking along and I cant imagine there would have been loads of rubbish to clear up? Perhaps the wild weather over the last week had swept in lots of debris…
The Dune du Pilat – wow! That sure is one big heap of sand…parked up and walked through a pine forest to the foot of the dune and gawped! This is a brilliant website which will give you some idea…
http://www.dunedupilat.com/english
As we stood at the bottom looking up, I got chatting to a French chap (chatting is a very loose term here – my schoolgirl French and lots of hand gestures – why do we think people will understand hand waving any better…?) who kindly offered to take our photo – I understood from him that his wife had climbed the dune taking a more moderate route – the alternative was straight up – and he had stayed behind – I understood this as he patted his chest and stuck his tongue out as if he was going to expire there and then! I did manage to tell him that we were from London and en vacance (holiday to you!) and that we enjoyed the French food and wine… 
The bottom of the dune…
The short, steep way up..
Hot work climbing dunes…
Beautiful…
Sand and sky…
One cat – on a sand dune…
Wheeee!
Off we went up the dune – phew…sure got the old ticker going – and the knee too – ah well, a bit of ice should sort that one out…it was well worth it though with the view from the top! Incredible to see this massive dune just sitting there – inland was pine forest and some little towns – and each side just miles of sand…this one – du Pilat – is vegetation free but there are dunes stretching for miles down the coast…on the north side towards Arcachon were lots of very nice holiday homes – perhaps all the rich Parisians have a pad down here…there were some real monster properties…
Where in the world would you see a cat on a sand dune…? Only on the biggest one in Europe perhaps..? Maybe the owners thought bringing a cat to the biggest kitty litter around would be a good thing…? When we sat down to absorb the view, a couple nearby stood up to leave, and he picked up a cat travel basket thing, and she picked up the cat – which was on a lead! We were in hysterics…she tried hard to make the cat walk on the lead – while Andrew was calling it….pssss pssss pssss! I just sat and laughed…kitty wasn’t having any of it so she had to be carried…then they tried to make it walk down the steep dune – no chance – but a good opportunity for Andrew to take a photo! Ah well – guess it takes all sorts…
It was such fun striding sliding down to the bottom – boots and socks full of sand but well worth it…although the thought did cross my mind that if I lost my footing, it could be very messy…
We timed it just right as the rain came down on the way home – we took the auto route this time and made it back safely…
The campsite – Twin Lakes – is nice although anywhere in the off season tends to look a little tired – we are safely on hard ground (not on a grass pitch but actually on the road leading to all the static caravans sited here!) which is good as they seem to have had lots of rain – probably as much as we had in the UK before we left – we’ve only just had the odd shower here and there – and its not cold thank goodness…
The two lakes are full of carp and during the summer months the place is packed with fishermen – they have to throw the fish back but Sean was telling us that the French eat carp so their bags have to be checked before they leave! Not much point in rescuing a dead carp at that stage I thought – but didn’t ask what they do with them…
Views across the lake…
Blue skies…
Twin Lakes camp site…
Walking around the grounds here gives a good idea of the lovely French countryside – not vastly different from rural England is some ways – but there is so much space here – the fields are huge – travelling on the roads between the towns with zero traffic – the occasional little Renault van trundling along but not much else – have to say though, that these particular roads are pretty narrow so any passing traffic makes me feel (I am sitting on the ‘wrong’ side of the truck) as though I’m about the say hello to the hedge – or ditch! There have been a couple of sharp intakes of breath when passing traffic – but that goes for both of us!
Its taking a while for us to unwind and not to feel as if we need to rush off here and there – it doesn’t matter if we only wake up at 9 – it doesn’t matter if we have lunch at 2.30 – and it sure doesn’t matter what day of the week or month it is! It is hard to let go of routines and looking at the clock – I guess it will take us a while to forget about time – apart from getting to the next stop before dark that is…
Today was washing day – the campsite’s facilities for washing don’t exist during the off season, so Gary told us there was a laundry next to the Intermarche in the next town of Jonzac – off we went with a full basket fully expecting an English type laundry…uh – nope! This was so much better! Sure enough, right next to the entrance to the Intermarche was the laundry – cant really describe it other than to say it was about the size of an English bus shelter – with 2 washing machines and a humongous tumble drier! All instructions in French but I managed to figure out that you didn’t add washing powder – just bung the washing into the machine and 30 minutes later – done! Another 20 minutes in the tumble drier and all finished…simples…
Laundry – French style!
MacDonald’s was across the other side of the car park (I know, I know – no more Macs – but we needed a coffee and wifi…) so coffee for 2 and wifi while we waited for the washing to finish… Andrew had a wander around the Brico Marche as well – bit like a B&Q DIY shop thing – happy buying bits for the hosepipe and gloves for the black dump tank. I went back to the machines to transfer the loads, and got chatting (really really need to listen to those ‘Learn French’ CDs we brought with us…) to a couple who asked me how the machines worked! Classic! Managed to say that as far as I knew, they worked very well – and that the medium heat on the tumble drier was very good – and that it only took “dix minute” hehe…the rest was done with hand signals and lots of “uhhhhh” as only the French can do…see, I’m learning fast!
Not sure where we’ll be off to next…been looking at maps and camp sites – and the weather – its been mild here and apart from the bit of drizzle this morning, the sun is out and warm enough to sit outside and write this…
Woody’s lights are fixed too – Andrew managed to rewire and sort out whatever was wrong with them so we can safely drive the whole rig knowing whoever is stuck behind us will know what we intend to do…it was rather nerve-wracking having to ‘pretend’ the brake lights were working by switching on the lights every time we had to brake! So Andrew was a happy bunny fiddling with tools and lights – I think I heard him say something along the lines of “see, told you my tools would come in handy” …
Another success for the day – we bought a French Sim card for the little phone Andrew bought in England – the idea being that we’d be able to phone up campsites etc…yeah right, so 1st try was down to me…
Conversation went a bit like this….
Me: Ah, bonjour monsieur, parle vous Anglais…?
Him: Ah – non Madame…votre Français c’est good - non?
Me: Ah – err…pardon?
Him: Je ne parlez l’Anglaise…
Me: Ah… (Bugger…)
Me: Ah – vous avez le camping pitch?
Him: Oui…
Me: Merci – nous avez un caravan – dix metres
Him: Ah…
Me: Ah…
Him: Pour le niut?
Me: Oui!
Him: (dunno – didn’t understand a word…!)
Me: Pour le Dimanche?
Him: Oui – le gate – c’est ouverte…
Me: Bon – merci – au revoir!
Now – whether or not this means we can actually stay there is another matter – but I had fun trying – and we’ll see when we get there huh?!
Huge apologies to all of you whose French is so much better than mine…will let you know if we get there ok or not!
Au revoir – a bientôt
