Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse
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44°26’55.3128″N, 1°15’14.3460″W

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Saint Emilion Clock Tower
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44°53’36.1212″N, 0°9’22.5360″W

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Jardin du Sarlat
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44°53’40.1964″N, 1°13’5.0016″E

Today we were up early for our drive from Biscarrosse to Sarlat – a distance of about 290 kilometres & approximately 3 1/2 hours according to our GPS.

We planned to stop at a Bouygues Phone office to try to get our phone service sorted out but when we arrived at the GPS location advertised by Bouygues there was only an electronics shop & it was not open.

My phone was working intermittently so I called the help number & finally got through to someone who could speak English. When I explained our problem she simply said to ignore the text messages. I told her our phones stopped working yesterday & she said turn the phones on & off & it will be ok. So, we powered our phones on & off & voila – they were working fine. This is a very confusing system. Hopefully we will not have any more service interruptions before we go home. Fingers crossed!

Anyway,  back to our travel adventures…

Back on the road again, about 1 hour into our trip we drove past Bordeaux on a ring road & then carried on to Saint Emilion. This is a medieval town built on a hillside & completely surrounded by spectacular chateaus & vineyards.

The place was so busy it was a challenge to find a parking spot.  We were just about ready to give up & keep driving to Sarlat when we came across a few empty spaces so we snagged one & went exploring.

Photo above – our first stop was a small cafe to get some coffee & a snack. This photo was taken through the window beside our table. Outside the window it  was straight down about 100 feet to the street below.

Photo above – after lunch we walked through the church that was across the street from the cafe. It was built in the early 12th century & is partially subterranean. The church & all of the town of Saint Emilion was recognized as by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1999.

Photo above – the exterior design of the church is very basic but it is massive.

Photo above – the clock tower dominates the town square. It chimed several times while we were exploring the streets.

Photo above  – most of the streets in the town are cobblestone, very steep & no vehicles are allowed except ones associated the businesses in the town.

Photo above  –  bakery & cake shop in Saint Emilion. Places like this in France are almost impossible to walk past. Time to get back on the road again.

Photo above – grapes ready for harvest.

As we left Saint Emilion we drove through many vineyards & saw that their harvest was already underway. This reminded Catherine of her time in the Loire Valley in 1980 with her dear friend Jan when they spent 6 weeks picking grapes at a vineyard. No automated harvest then – all picked by hand.

Photo above – arched railway bridge passing over our road on the way to Sarlat.

We continued our drive cross country to Sarlat. It seemed like there was a spectacular view around every corner & at the crest of every hill. This drive took us over an hour longer than if we would have taken the freeway but it was worth every extra minute.

Photo above  – le Jardin du Sarlat – our b&b for the next 4 nights.

This b&b has been operated by an ex-pat British couple for the past 16 years. Wonderful hosts in a very comfortable 230 year old home with lots of interesting stories about their life in France & a wealth of knowledge about the area.

Photo above  – some of the buildings in the historic center of the town.

It was only about a 10 minute walk from our b&b to the center of the town & main restaurant area. We had a very nice meal at a place recommended by our hosts.

Photo above – more of the town center.

Sarlat has the highest density of listed historical buildings in France dating back to the Middle Ages. It is truly stunning.  We can’t wait to spend a lot more time exploring this area over the next few days.

Cheers!

Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse
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44°26’55.3128″N, 1°15’14.3460″W

We woke up this morning to the sound of thunder & heavy rain. Fortunately, the storm appeared to be coming to an end – a considerable improvement over the weather forecast from a couple of days ago – with a lot of rain forecast for most of Friday,  Saturday & Sunday but most of the predicted bad weather never appeared.

By the time we had finished our breakfast the rain had pretty much stopped & the sun was fighting its way through the clouds.

We had planned for today to be a quiet one, with no driving – just walking around the village & on the beach.

Before we could get started we discovered that both of our phones had stopped working. The SIM cards we bought were supposed to be active until October 4th – 2 days after we would be home. So we were puzzled by what was going on.

Photo above  – our sim – simtimes they work & simtimes they don’t.

About a week ago Catherine & I each got text messages from the Bouygues Telecom company telling us that our service was about to expire & that we had to call a special number to ensure that our phone service would stay active.

I called Bouygues & the operator told me to ignore the message because we were just short term customers & the message really only applied to pay-as-you-go customers. 

This past Friday Catherine & I each got another message from Bouygues so we just ignored it. Then on Sunday – no phone service. And, of course, Bouygues was closed on Sundays so we couldn’t get any assistance.

For some reason my phone service worked sporadically later in the day. I looked up a nearby location for the phone company & we planned to stop there in the morning to get things sorted out.

Enough phone nonsense for now… back to our Sunday adventures.

After breakfast we went for a walk along the beach. As a result of the storm the surf was much louder & wave periods were much closer than the day before. 

Photo above – surfers are having a good time after the storm.

Photo above  – the tide was out quite a ways when we were walking today & the beach close to the dunes was quite wet in several spots where rainwater from the storm was draining down to the tide line. Lots of interesting patterns in the sand from the runoff.

Photo above  – I don’t think I could ever get tired of looking at the waves & walking on this beach.

Photo above – Catherine dusting the sand off her feet after our walk on the beach.

We had a light lunch & Catherine went for another walk while I stayed in our unit to work on the blog & watch some of the F1 race from Singapore. Shortly after she got back from her walk we got a WhatsApp video call from David & Valerie.

They had finished their walk for the day on the Camino de Santiago in Spain & thought it would be fun to catch up with each other. We enjoyed sharing our adventures.

Photo above  – while we were having our dinner we thought we saw a monster bird fly by. Turned out it was someone in a sailing parachute. There were 3 of them sailing on the air currents & updraft created by the wind blowing up the side of the sand dunes.

These guys were very skilled in handling these things. They could even “park” it & hover over one spot for a couple of minutes. It looked like they were having a good time & they rode the air currents around that part of the beach for almost 2 hours. If I wasn’t so afraid of heights I wouldn’t mind giving it a try myself!

Photo above  – a beautiful sunset – the last one we will see from Biscarrosse.

Photo above  – almost gone!  Reminds me of some of the beautiful sunsets we saw in Goderich on Lake Huron & in St. Andrews on Passamaquoddy Bay.

Tomorrow we drive to Sarlat. About a 3 hour drive from Biscarrosse. We will stop at a Bouygues store in the morning to try & get our phones sorted out.

Cheers!

Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse
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44°26’55.3128″N, 1°15’14.3460″W

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Dune du Pilat
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44°35’34.7820″N, 1°12’54.2052″W

Today we went to see the Dune du Pilat, the largest sand dune in Europe. The entire coastline in this area has dunes but in this particular area the dunes are absolutely massive!

Photo above  – Catherine at the base of the main dune. If you look closely at the top of the photo the black specks you see are people on top of the dune. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.

The dune is 103 meters high, 600 meters wide & 3 kilometers long. The entire area is a national protected park.

A staircase has been installed by the park authority to help people ascend the dune. The sand is very difficult to walk in because it is so fine & soft. It’s hard just walking through it on the level ground. It’s almost impossible for a lot of people (like me) to climb the dune without using the steps.

Photo above – there are 168 steps in this staircase.  I was puffing pretty good by the time I reached the top but the effort was well rewarded!

Photo above  – a sailboat off in the distance on the Bay of Biscay

Photo above – looking back inland from the top of the dune you can see only forest for miles. The forest is mostly low trees & scrub brush.

Photo above – I was intimidated by the prospect of walking down the staircase (vertigo) so we walked down the side of the dune instead. The slope of the dune (going straight down) was pretty steep but the path along the side of it was relatively wide & a reasonable descent.  We just kept our focus on the pathway & didn’t look down.

Photo above – the forest at the base of the dune.

In July 2022 there was a major forest fire in this area due to drought & heat. It took firefighters 11 days to get the fire under control. Approximately 7,000 hectares of forest were burned & it effectively ended the tourist season for this entire area.

Photo above – there is still lots of evidence of the forest fire for several kilometers along the highway on our drive from the dunes back to Biscarrosse. The tall trees are mostly burned but there is lots of new growth at ground level.

On our way home we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies for our dinner & breakfast tomorrow morning. I got some stuff for a special meal tonight.

We had a brief rest & then went down to the beach to check out the surf. Catherine contemplated going in for a swim but decided against it because the undertow was pretty strong. It was almost dinnertime, so that was my cue to spring into action!

Photo above  – armed with can of fine French beer (1664) chef Wally makes quesadillas for dinner!

During our boat cruise with David & Valerie I had offered many times to make quesadillas for dinner but no one was showing any interest. I finally wore Catherine down to the point where she gave in so it was my time to shine!

Photo above  – a tortilla, some sliced chicken, shallots, mushrooms,  shredded mozzarella cheese & a glass of fine French wine (€5.00 a bottle!) & voilà  – an almost Michelin star dinner!

Photo above  – the sun was setting just as we were finishing up our dinner. We were already dressed in our evening clothes (pajamas) so we opted to enjoy the sunset from our balcony.

The forecast for tonight & tomorrow is for rain. So far we have been lucky & the rain has held off. Hopefully our luck will continue. We shall see!

Cheers!

Bordeaux Train Station
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44°49’35.5008″N, 0°33’22.3488″W

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Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse
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44°26’55.3128″N, 1°15’14.3460″W

This was our last day in Bordeaux. We took the bus from our hotel down to the main train station. Very convenient as we didn’t have to make any changes to get to the train station even though the bus ride was about 30 minutes.  The Avis car rental depot was located there and we were scheduled to pick up our car at 2:00 pm.

We had to check out of our hotel by 10:00 am so we had several hours before we could pick up our rental car.  We took advantage of the time & had a long lunch at a nice restaurant across the road from the train station.

Photo above- this restaurant has an amazing bar. It’s huge & must be 25-30 feet high. The inside of the restaurant was also very large & must be a very busy place in peak tourism season.

We had a 90 minute drive from Bordeaux to Biscarrosse. Most of the trip was on divided highways. We would have preferred to have taken secondary roads, but that would have involved a lot of driving through a major part of Bordeaux, and we just didn’t want to get into that.

Thankfully the train station is located just a few blocks from a divided highway passing through Bordeaux,  so getting out of the city was very easy. Hopefully it will be just as easy when we have to return the car to the same place a week from now.

This time Avis gave us an Opel brand 4 door car with a 6 speed manual transmission. The car feels a bit bigger & more peppy than the Fiat we had last year. We really liked the Fiat. Hopefully the Opel will be a good car for us too!

This car is bright red. We have decided to name it “Opiee”.  Catherine feels comfortable in this car because it already has a small dent in the right rear door (from a previous rental that Avis has noted), so we feel like that the car has already had an incident. Therefore we will have less to worry about.

Photo above – Catherine with Opiee the Opal – on the “dent free” side.

Our drive to Biscarrosse was fairly easy & we didn’t get lost – not even once! Our route took us past the giant sand dune that is a major tourist attraction in this area. We will travel to see it tomorrow, it is only a 15 minute drive from where we are staying.

We arrived in Biscarrosse around 3:30 pm. This is not your typical French village. It is more like Bondi Beach, with a surfers vibe to it. The houses & commercial buildings are fairly modern in design – a big change from what we’ve been used to seeing for the past few weeks.

Photo above – our hotel. We have a room on the 2nd floor, just above the surf shop & beside the casino!

Our hotel room is actually part of a condo/hotel. It appears that many of the units are owned by individuals who rent them out when they are not using them. Our unit is a compact one bedroom with a nice sized bathroom & a combination kitchen/living room. There is a balcony that faces the ocean but we can’t see it because of the giant dune in front of the property. It is the same for the entire village. No ocean views unless you walk up to the top of the dune. Then the view is fabulous!

Photo above  – the view of the Bay of Biscay from the top of the dune in Biscarrosse is stunning. Pure sand beaches as far as you can see in either direction.

There is a really nice sidewalk path along the top of the dune in the village. The authorities have done a pretty good job of protecting the dunes in an area that is very popular with tourists & surfers.

After walking around the village for a while we went back to our hotel then Catherine decided to try out the pool.

Photo above – the pool at our hotel. It’s not very big but Catherine said it was fun to have a few laps in.

After supper we walked back to the dune & down to the beach. Even with the sun setting there were still lots of people on the beach & also in the water catching the last few waves before dark.

Photo above  – the surf is not big today but people were still having a good time.

Photo above  – Catherine (center) contemplating the surfing life…..

Photo above – surfers catching the last waves before sunset.

Photo above  – Catherine got this shot just as we were getting ready to go back to the hotel. It caught the waves & the wet sand perfectly.

Photo above – Biscarrosse has something for everyone. This casino is beside our hotel. We were a bit worried about this location being noisy at night but it turned out there was no concern. I expect that my snoring was louder than anything going on outside after 10:30 pm – at least during this time of year.

Tomorrow we go to see the really big dune – the Dune du Pilat – the largest sand dune in Europe!

Cheers!

Place de la Bourse Bordeaux
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44°50’30.4188″N, 0°34’8.0148″W

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Porte Cailhou Gate
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44°50’19.6476″N, 0°34’6.5064″W

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Porte de Bourgogne
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44°50’10.8168″N, 0°33’58.4244″W

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Grosse Cloche
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44°50’7.6164″N, 0°34’16.7808″W

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Musee d’Aquitaine
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44°50’9.3624″N, 0°34’30.7524″W

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Cathedrale Saint-Andre de Bordeaux
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44°50’14.6976″N, 0°34’39.5220″W

Today we did a LOT of walking. We walked from our hotel to our first stop – the Place de la Bourse Bordeaux (stock exchange or Old Royal Square)

Photo above – fountain at the Place de la Bourse.

Photo above – Catherine sitting at the edge of the reflecting pool across the road from the stock exchange

Photo above – the reflecting pool is in-between the river & the stock exchange. This entire area is so incredibly well done. Also very calming.

Photo above – our next stop – the Porte Cailhou Gate

Photo above – the Porte Cailhou gate was built in the 1500’s & was the former bell tower for Bordeaux City Hall. Lots of tourist like us walking through the gate & taking photos.

Photo above – our next stop – the Porte de Bourgogne arch. This is like a small scale Arch d’ Triomphe without a roundabout. However, it was located at the foot of a major bridge crossing the Garrone River so there was lots of traffic whizzing by.

Photo above – our next stop was another gate to the old city – the Grosse Cloche – an interesting clock tower.  I would have liked to have spent some more time looking at this but there was a lot of construction in the area plus there was a group of noisy “street people” by the gate that a security guard was trying his best to move them out of the area. We didn’t feel very comfortable at that location so we walked by pretty quickly.

Our next stop was supposed to be the cathedral but we were getting hungry so we stopped at a small cafe to get a bite to eat. By the time we were finished our lunch the cathedral had closed for their lunch & weren’t opening for another 90 minutes so we walked down to the city museum.

Photo above – a Roman carving recovered in the city.

This museum has a lot of artifacts & exhibits recovered from the Bordeaux area that date from before Jesus was born, through the Roman occupation, into the middle ages & into the 1700 & 1800s.

Photo above – a section of the museum was dedicated to Bordeaux’s maritime history including some great models of sailing ships. For a time Bordeaux was the second largest port in the world after London. Sadly, Bordeaux was also a key European port in the slave trade until the mid 1800’s. This was detailed in museum exhibits as well as honouring the contributions of people of African descent to France and Bordeaux in particular.

Photo above – our final stop of the day was at Cathedrale Saint-Andre de Bordeaux.

Photo above – inside the cathedral

Copied from Wikipedia: In 1998, UNESCO designated the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France as a World Heritage Site, including the three main churches of Bordeaux: the basilica of St Severinus, the basilica of St Michael and the cathedral of St Andrew. (I couldn’t have said it better myself).

Historic records date the original church building on this site around year 814 & then various records document the cathedral’s expansions over the next several hundred years.

Photo above – looking forward towards the altar. The acoustics in this building are amazing. There were posters outside listing concerts that were being performed here but unfortunately none while we are in the city.

Photo above – every planter needs a little lampshade, doesn’t it?

We had reached the end of our epic tour for the day. We did a lot of walking but all of these amazing places were surprisingly close together.

The historic part of Bordeaux is very compact & also very flat so getting around wasn’t all that bad. My biggest challenge was constantly trying to avoid being run over by all of the people on bicycles – especially the delivery people who were riding like they were in the Tour de France.

Tomorrow we head to Biscarrosse on the Bay of Biscay. The forecast for the next 3 days calls for rain. Hopefully we will get some sunny periods too.

Cheers!