Bassin D'Arcachon

 Coming back from Biarritz the other day, I passed by signs to Bassin d'Archechon.  I remembered it looked like a neat place on the cartoonish map I have, so I decided to drive there yesterday.  It was only 50 miles away but with the one-and-a-half lane roads you have to go on for much of the journey, it still took me an hour and a half.



I finally found where all the cool kids go.  It was the most crowded place I have been to, outside of Bordeaux.  A beautiful beach, calm waters and plenty of cafes and restaurants right on the water.

Most beaches I have been to in Europe have activities for kids like these jumping whatever they are.  In Biarritz, there was a place where parents could just drop off their kids and have someone else watch them.

This is what so many American beaches lack.  Cafes and restaurants right on the water.  I guess we do have some when there is a boardwalk, but that doesn't feel the same somehow.

Still, as you can see, the beach was not packed like a New Jersey or Delaware beach would be.  But that makes it nice.  It seems all of the people are in the cafes, including me.


You see, this is a very different picture of me.  I'm drinking white wine!

Once again, some of the buildings looked almost Swiss.

The whole place was covered with flowers and the Casino on the beach (every town has one) was quite spectacular. Sorry about the quality of the picture; I had to take it from my car.

All in all, a very nice day.  Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and not too far from home.

Speaking of the ride home, part of it was on a highway.  I have never seen so many trucks and I have driven 295.  At one point, about 20 of them were backed up and basically at a standstill.  Cars drove right by them because they were not allowed in the left lane.  The day before I had driven by the same place with the same backup.  You must have to be a saint to drive a truck here.

Next up: Cave Paintings.


Comments

  1. CécileJuly 14, 2023 at 7:19 AM

    Alice, I've been enjoying your blog. We were on vacation so it was hard to find time to read until we got home two days ago. Ada is here now. She says you are going home tomorrow. Our French friends, Bernard Mehaye and his wife own the winery Chateau Sipian farther up the coast from you. From their website it looks like their son runs it now but Bernard goes back every September for the "vendage." I hope your trip home goes much better than the trip out. It sounds like you've seen and done a lot of interesting things there.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interesting days

Image
When you travel you are not exempt from the little emergencies that you have to deal with at home.  So it was at the end of last week. I woke up on Saturday with severe back spasms, the kind that make it difficult to get out of bed or walk.  I don't have back problems typically, so I attributed the problems to getting soaked on my walking tour, driving for four hours the next day and being old. The funny thing is, I didn't panic.  I figured it was a temporary situation.  I drove, with some difficulty, to the pharmacy and got an over-the-counter muscle relaxer and a back patch that was nothing like the Icy-hot one I was hoping for. After a couple of hours of not feeling much better, I decided I would have to see a doctor for some drugs.  I went to the office in Margeaux that Angelique had listed in her information about the house.  It was closed, even though the sign on the door indicated it had hours on Saturday.  I looked up a number and called a loca...
Read more

Wine Tasting

Image
 I was feeling much better on Tuesday, so into Bordeaux I went to catch my tour of Chateau Margaux. Or at least I thought it would be of Chateau Margaux but it turns out that it was visits to two wineries in the appellation of Margeaux.  And the real irony was that the Chateaux were very close to where I'm staying. I thought about calling and asking if I could just meet them up at the Chateau, but I figured I would miss something that the driver/ guide would be saying on the way there, so I drove into Bordeaux and parked where I had before. Unfortunately had the same problem getting in but I think I finally figured it out. An appellation is an area that identifies its native wines.  Medoc is the larger purple area on this map, but Margeaux is in deep purple.  Every wine that is grown and made in that area can call itself Margeaux.  But put a grape from outside of the area in a wine and it ceases to be a Margeaux.  If it is outside of one of the appellations...
Read more