2 COTE D’ARGENT AND ALL THE WAY TO SPAIN

We ended last week’s blog on a rather rainy note in Bordeaux. We left the campsite Monday morning (22/05/2023) to see a family friend in Bordeaux. Following that visit (where I said about 3 words because I massively overestimated my French language ability before leaving for this trip), we drove to La Dune Du Pilat - Europe’s tallest sand dune! It really was enormous; by far the biggest sand dune I had encountered! We walked along the top and sat for a while to soak in the sun (and the magnificent views of course).

Having reached the maximum amount of enthusiasm one can have for a large big pile of sand, we left La Dune du Pilat and popped in to the nearby town of Arcachon to have lunch. It was around this time I had a sudden realisation that I’ve probably eaten around 6 full-sized baguettes over the course of last weeks lunches. I felt an strange combination of slight shame and complete joy. Following this rather underwhelming achievement (or not), we drove to a small seaside town called Moliets-et-Maa. I chose this town randomly as a stopping point between Bordeaux and Biarritz, not really realising that it was a surf town. Now, you may be wondering: Holly, what makes a town a surf town? Well… *prepare for some massive generalisations*… Firstly, everyone has long, slightly bleached hair and skin so damaged from sun exposure that it resembles leather. Secondly, surf skate is the most popular mode of transport, even if it’s counterproductive and results in carrying the board for most the journey. Thirdly, there’s at least 5 restaurants that exclusively sell acai/poke bowls and smoothies. Fourthly and perhaps unique to this town, it hosts it’s own vegan surf school. All these things meant that I absolutely loved it. That night, we camped under a tree in a carpark in the centre of town, which was surprisingly quiet. After checking out the beach, I had a British delicacy of eggs, sausages and beans for dinner. 

In the morning, I hired a surfboard from a local shop and went for a little surf. The current was super strong, instantly pulling me down the coast which made paddling out super tough (especially for my weak arms - I’m no Eddie Hall). Regardless, I caught a few waves and fun was had ! I then changed and we continued our drive down La Cote d’Argent, stopping briefly at various slightly forgettable towns along the way. This drive down took us through miles and miles of manmade forests and humongous fields of crops and farmland. Without sounding too harsh, it was quite ugly and so it’s just as well that things started to look better when we approached Biarrtiz. 

*BERT MODIFICATION ALERT*

Prior to arriving in Biarritz, we popped to Decathlon to buy a new stove for Bert. The final straw came when it took 25 minutes to fry a couple of eggs the previous night. After a great deal of consideration and consultation with Cam over the phone, we opted for a gas stove this time rather than the methylated spirit stove we had before. We were pleased with our decision. Simply all we needed to do now was to drill quite a large hole in the wooden stove cabinet in order to install the cable that links the gas bottle with the stove. The only (and quite significant) problem was: we had no drill to do this. As we had an Airbnb booked for the next couple of nights, we made a mutual decision to avoid this problem until it was necessary to deal with it (so in two days time).

Anyway, we arrived in Biarritz soon after. To give you an idea of the type of place it is; it has a Ferrari garage and a Hermès store. Furthermore,  Wikipedia uses words such as ‘elegant’ and ‘luxurious’ to describe it. It’s also known as being the birthplace of surfing in Europe and has remained France’s surfing capital ever since. My Mum had been looking forward to Biarritz a lot having wanted to visit since hearing about it on the radio when she was young. I hoped that it would live up to her high expectations.

Arriving in Bert at the Airbnb was quite hysterical. He looked slightly out-of-place amongst the Range-Rovers and Mercs parked outside the very sophisticated refurnished hotel where we were staying. Although we were in a tiny (but lovely) apartment in the servants quarter on the top floor of the building, it was very nice to have slightly more room than in Bert. We then explored the town. As we strolled through the streets, the lovely smells coming from each restaurant made them all very inviting …until we saw the price. Finally, we discovered a tapas restaurant where the dishes were (only!!!) €15pp. However, it was money well spent. I had the Assiette Basque which will most likely mean nothing to you (or me at that point) unless I show you a picture. It included the local Chistora sausages which were incredible. I also opted for the ‘house punch’ which I’m pretty certain had an alcohol volume greater than absinthe. 

In the morning, my mum faffed about (5 on the anger scale) and then we went to the local market to buy some food for dinner. Like everything in Biarritz, the prices had the ability to cause bankruptcy. My Mum bought a small fillet of salmon and a filleted sea bream which came to a hilarious total of 38 euros ! We were not best pleased. To accompany the outrageously priced fish, we bought some white asparagus and potatoes. We then decided to rent some boards. Whilst my mum bodyboarded, I had a short-lived surf on La Plage de la Côte des Basques. It began as a laborious paddle out along the cliff right out of the bay. After a bit of a wait, I proceeded to catch the best wave of my life- I even surfed along the wave (unheard of!). However, the wave carried me quite close to shore which meant that I had to repeat the long and tedious paddle out, by which time a lengthy set of enormous waves had decided to come in making it impossible for my weak arms to get me back out. I then spent some time messing around in the white water with my mum bodyboarding beside me, before returning the boards to the very lovely man at the surf shop. 

After relaxing in the sun for a little while, we had an overpriced cocktail on the walk back to the airbnb. It was then time to cook the fish which thankfully, was delicious (although still not worth 38 euros).

Following another disappointing sleep in the air bnb (clearly my attachment issues with Bert are worse than I thought), we left Biarritz to drive down the coast to Saint-Jean-de-Luz where we had planned to stay the night. Having explored the town and concluded that although it was lovely, it was a bit quiet and did not offer any surfing. Therefore, we made a mutual decision to head back up the coast past Biarritz to Anglet where I could get another surf in and my mum could do more bodyboarding. Soon however, we realised that it was necessary that we now sort the issue we had been avoiding: the hole in the stove cabinet. I tracked down a Menuisier (a carpenter) on google to help solve our problem. Amazingly, we found a place with a very lovely man who drilled a keyhole to perfectly fit the new stove’s cable to the gas bottle through the cabinet. He was extremely helpful and insisted that we did not need to pay for the service - what a lovely man ! Chuffed with Bert’s new cooker, we drove to Anglet, parked near the beach and watched the national university surfing championship (basically a French BUCS) whilst having a sangria. We then made pasta on the new stove which is incredible ! I then went to read my book on the beach and it was quite wholesome.

The following day was beautiful. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was super hot. Whilst my mum had gone back to Biarritz, I was a beach bum for the day. Apart from going for a surf for a couple of hours, I relaxed on the beach reading my book all day. The surf was really fun and the general atmosphere amongst the surfers out there was really nice. People were super supportive! In the evening, we ate a Nutella and banana crepe and watched the spectacular sunset. Bliss.  

Today we were going to Lourdes ! For those who may not know, Lourdes is a major pilgrimage site for Catholics and the water from the grotto underneath the Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes is said to have healing properties. I was stunned to find out that 6 million pilgrims visit Lourdes each year, and having seen it for myself (even as an atheist), it was quite special. I had wanted to go to Lourdes ever since watching Julian Schnabel’s, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). It’s a French film about ex-editor of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Whilst I’m not going to give a synopsis of the film because it’s a bit complicated, it really stuck with me and I decided to include it on my trip (also please watch the film it’s very good).

As the town of Lourdes itself was a bit disenchanting, we moved-on to have lunch on the grass surrounding the Lac de Lourdes. It was a sweltering day and sheltering ourselves from the sun’s heat under the trees was lovely. It was here that I made the bright idea to drive halfway across France (we needed to be going in that direction anyway) to see something I’d found on google maps mere minutes before: Les Orgues d'Illa. As Google maps generally does, it offers a variety of routes to reach your destination. Now, my thinking was: it’s a long, tiring drive and therefore the quickest, most uncomplicated route (3h48m) would be best. My Mum’s thinking was: she wanted to see some interesting scenery (4h33m). I warned her that some of the roads on her route appeared to be quite narrow and winding but she insisted that we had been on ‘D roads’ before so I caved and we decided to drive the scenic route. After driving for four hours, and with one hour remaining (google lied), I was starting to get quite angry (about a 8/10 on the anger scale). We were on the remote foothills of the Pyrenees, on one-track roads with sheer cliff faces and I was concerned for Bert’s health. He had had a long day (in total nearly 6 hours at this point) and with no signal, it would have been an interesting experience getting help. I was not happy and in a very I told you so mood.

We arrived in the town of Ille-sur-Têt at around 20:30pm and as you can probably imagine, I was not in a chatty mood. We had been sweating away in the car all day and we were in desperate need of a shower. Having visited a couple of local campsites, we thankfully found one that let us stay at such short notice. That was undoubtedly the angriest I had been with my Mum on this trip and with Girona airport not too far from Ille-sur-Têt, she was staring in the face of an early flight home. However, over dinner and after cooling down in the shower, my Mum and I became friends once again.

In the morning, we visited Les Orgues d'Illa which were quite breath-taking. They were a little like a miniature version of the grand-canyon. Having seen enough natural rock formation for one day, we drove to the coast and finally down into Spain. The road took us high above the sea, offering amazing views of the towns hidden in coves along the coast. In dire need to cool down, we stopped at a small town called Llançà to go for our first swim in the Med. It was lovely. Having had a little swim, we continued to our destination of Tossa de Mar; a very pretty town on the Spanish coast. We walked around, admiring the colourful clothes in all the shops. Now a bit peckish, we had some pizzas in a local Pizzeria. Both of our choices included the local Catalan sausage which not only looked like bits of chewed brain, also tasted unpleasant and overly salty. We then ended this week with an early night, exhausted from all the excitement.

Summary

My second week in Bert was action-packed and anything but boring. My Mum and I are still talking, so that’s a positive. Bert has continued to power-on like the trooper that he is, and the modifications done have only improved him. Join me next week where I say goodbye to my Mum (I would insert a sad face but that’s a little difficult to do in brackets) and I explore Barcelona whilst meeting-up with some pals along the way!

Appreciate the support :)