Bordeaux & Arcachon

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This year our usual week long holiday out in the south of France was in mid-June, and we were joined by a couple of Hannah’s friends, Rebecca and Johnny. For most of the week we relaxed by the pool enjoying the incredibly hot weather however when the weather did turn for the worse we decided to hit the road towards Bordeaux. It was a decent drive, just over 2 hours until we finally reached the French city of Bordeaux. We parked the car and began wandering around exploring the city. Not really knowing what we all wanted to see or do while here we slowly made our way through the unusually quiet backstreets towards the Cathedral. I was expecting ‘just another Cathedral’ after having now seen so many before, but I was surprised to see a simple yet very grand Cathedral with one of the largest organs I’d even seen. After a brief look around and a few photos, hunger was setting in, so we left to find somewhere for lunch. We continued to wander around the now busy street looking for somewhere decent and affordable to have lunch. After some time we eventually ended up back where we started at the car park, so resorted to having lunch in the small café across the road.

After lunch we jumped back in the car and drove further west towards the sea and a place called Arcachon. We were heading for one of the biggest tourist attractions in this area and Europe’s largest sand dune, the Dune du Pilat. It was huge, even before we’d parked the car the dune was visible through the thick forest. There were two ways to scale this massive sand dune, the first, was to take the stairs (yes stairs…) all the way to the top, there were hundreds of them. The second was to literally climb up the side of it, we all decided to take the stairs. It was an exhausting climb but we eventually made it to the top of this enormous sand dune. The views were unbelievable, on one side forests as far as you could see, one the other, the sea and western coast of France, it’s just a shame that it was so overcast and dull. After taking in the spectacular view 107 meters above sea level we slowly made our way back to the car, however this time I avoided the stairs instead carefully walking down the steep side of the dune.

We jumped back in the car and started the long drive back to Bergerac. We arrived back in the early evening, ate way too much for dinner and spent the rest of the evening drinking Monbazillac and playing the surprisingly funny Mr. Bean board game.

Accommodation:
Bergerac

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Photos

Dune du Pilat
amazing views at the top of Europe's largest sand dune, Dune du Pilat.

Bordeaux
Inside the impressive Bordeaux cathedral.

Dune du Pilat
The dreaded stairs to the top of the 107 metre tall sand dune.

Dune du Pilat
Kitesurfing on the western coast of France at Dune du Pilat

Dune du Pilat
Looking out towards the western coast of France.