The run out to Biscarrosse beach aire was punctuated with a provisioning stop at the supermarket on the outskirts of Biscarrosse town.

As usual, Sally had diligently checked the route into the supermarket on Google Maps and we decided we would fit Beatrix into the carpark and stop around the back of the store. Alas, when we arrived a new height barrier had been installed at 3 meters so there was no parking for us. I managed a dodgy 7-point turn in a layby without knocking anything over and we eventually found a parking spot nearby to abandon ship and get stocked up before heading out to the beach for the week.

Navigating out the Biscarrosse beach and it’s clear to see that this is another spot that would be super busy in summer but is now all but closed up out of season. It could seem a bit sad but I quite like holiday towns out of season.

The weather is still so good that it’s necessary to remind ourselves that it’s the middle of October now. We found the aire and after figuring out how to get in, you need to pay in advance for your stay which is pretty odd, we settled into a great spot. Later we saw someone else struggling with the payment/entry which made us feel better. Sally popped over to help them out before realising that she probably didn’t have the right french words to make the process any clearer!

The aire here is in a pine forest, right behind the dunes and the sea. If you can imagine, it has three circular trails winding through it which have some parking spots of each side of the trail. Given the copious covering of pine trees we tried to find a spot in the sun where we could get some solar power in as there is no electrical hook up at this aire. Sadly, whilst I thought I’d done a good job finding the perfect gap in the trees, I missed by about 10m so we were pretty much in the shade with the exception of an hour in the late afternoon. That said, our wonderful new solar set up and Beatrix’s abundance of battery power meant that although we got down to a new ‘low’ battery level of 85% (where confusingly 50% is the absolute minimum), we survived 5 days off grid including a Sally workday with no issues so that’s given us a lot of confidence.

There’s probably an overabundance of beach/sea photos in these blogs for which I apologise but the coast has been so damned beautiful it’s really hard not to just sit and enjoy it. Here in Biscarrosse, our morning dog walk takes us through the forest and down to the beach for a stroll in the sand. We’re both reminded of how lucky we feel when we compare this to the rushed, perfunctory morning walks from our previous lives. Whilst there are compromises living in a sardine can on wheels, this week they seem infinitesimally small.

As already mentioned, it’s still outrageously warm here with temperatures of 28c during the day which has meant we’ve been out sunbathing on the beach. Over the weekend, our aire filled up with VW Transporters all with surfboards on top and there were plenty of surfers and kite boarders in the sea. The waves can be pretty big here and intimidatingly they keep coming piling in relentlessly piling, so I think you’d need some experience to be out there. We did paddle a bit but it was pretty chilly and the waves were a bit much for swimming; Well, that was our excuse anyway.

When its been cooler in the mornings, we’ve been out running (as best as we can manage in the sand) and at night, with the skylights open, we can hear the rolling waves crashing in as we sleep. It really has been perfect here.

But we can’t stay forever, the next weekend is fast approaching and we’re due to meet our friends Tim and Victoria back in La Rochelle which is some 250kms north. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the weather as at the moment it’s looking like it might be a wet weekend.

On the way back, we had to swing past well-known tourist spot at the ‘Dune du Pilat’ which, believe it or not, is the largest sand dune in all of Europe. The dune, which is to be fair pretty impressive, is 2.7kms long and over 100m high and we were happy to find that there were some temporary stairs to help you part way up as the sand is really deep which made the ascent a bit tricky.

We broke the journey north with another French Passion stop, this time at the Chateau des Matards. We fancied a chilled Sauvignon Blanc or a cheeky Rosé, which is rapidly becoming our wine of choice this autumn. Again, we were the only van here and we got a lovely introduction to the vineyard and the wines they produce from the owner. We learnt that more of the Bordeaux wines are no longer aged in oak barrels as they have traditionally been. This makes a lighter, easier to drink wine which it seemed was helping the region produce wines to compete with the new world wines. Interesting hey?

Rural France is incredibly peaceful and calm, so we spent the rest of the evening drinking a crisp Sauvignon Blanc whilst watching the sunset on the vines that the grapes came from. Very cool.

La Rochelle

We hadn’t spent much time in La Rochelle as we came of Ile de Re stopping really to check that we could get into the Aire ok and see how far it was into town. This time we checked in for 6 days and met up with Tim and Victoria who had driven across from the UK for half-term and booked an AirBNB.

Le Moleskine bar was a great place to meet up for a few drinks to get Saturday night started and we had dinner at Óbouchon which was a taste sensation and if possible, even better than Friday night. Dinner out for us is a rare thing nowadays so to be out for two consecutive nights and to have really great food both times was an amazing treat.

On Sunday, we drove across to Ile de Re to rent bikes for the day. I’d found a place that rented bikes with dog baskets so the first challenge was could we persuade Merlin to get in? Yes, we could….. and apparently, she was much happier than this photo might lead you to believe!

After a small false start in the small streets of the town, which necessitated a coffee stop to regroup, we cycled from Saint Marie to Saint Martin de Re which was about 10kms. This is, ofcourse, not very far but it’s been a long time since either of us were on push bikes so it was quite far enough!

Saint Martin de Re was somewhere that I’d really wanted to see when we were here last, but we didn’t quite have enough time. I’m so glad we made it here this time. Leaving the bikes at the top of the hill, we wandered down the small, cobbled streets down to the port area which was busy and lined on both sides with restaurants and diners. Despite my earlier protestations about being full from last night still, I was able to tuck away half a Moules Frites and Pizza. It was windy enough that Sally and Victoria had to hang on to their wine glasses but other than that it was a beautiful, lazy french lunch followed up with ice cream from La Martinere.

This island really is amazing!

On Sunday evening we had to say our goodbyes. Tim and Victoria were heading back towards the Tunnel and we had decided to head south again as the weather looked so much better. We’re not exactly sure where we’ll end up so that will be a tale for next week.

Thanks for reading, Toby, Sally and Merlin