We didn’t have anything planned after our Biarritz stop, so we had to come up with a three night plan to take us to our next booking on the Ile de Re. Initial thoughts were to head up to Bordeaux & around to La Rochelle then over the bridge to the Ile. We looked at the map & decided to head up the west coast, through the Gironde then take the ferry from Port Medoc to Royan. No campsites were being booked, we were going to do back to back Camping Car Parks. We would shower in the van & see how we got on. As some of the CCP’s are in popular places, we opted to upgrade our membership a couple of months ago, that would allow us to book in advance the sought after locations. It’s been well worth the £25 fee.
Night One – Messanges with five kilometres of sand & nothing else it was perfect for a lazy day on the beach. Just watching the world go by & listening to the waves crashing for a few hours & to recharge our batteries. CCP looked a bit like a shanty town with vans crammed in, but it grew on us & was quiet overnight.
Night Two – Ares via The Dunes of Pilat – We had stumbled across the fact that the largest sand dune in Europe was a short diversion from our next destination! That was it, off we diverted. When we left Messanges it was dull & overcast, by the time we arrived at the dune, it had brightened up. The dune is 10 metres high & 500 metres wide with massive views of the Atlantic Ocean & Landes forest. Well worth seeing. Arrived in Ares late afternoon, parked up then went for a wander along the beach to the town. Nothing to write home about apart from a large wooden Eiffel Tower in the garden of a Brocante! The CCP was perfectly fine, £11 for the night.
Night Three – Port Medoc via Soulac sur Mer – Not sure why but really wanted to stop off in Soulac, knew nothing about the place but it sounded nice. We were right, free parking a short distance from the town with a flat level walk along the seafront. A compact town with lots of interesting shops & restaurants. We decided to have lunch to avoid cooking that evening. Pretty standard menu, so opted for a burger & fries. Fuelled up we then left for the ten minute journey to Port Medoc for the night. Got a front row pitch, overlooking the marina. We got the bikes out & decided to go for a look around. What looked like a quiet location, had a lot going for it & we were disappointed that we could only stay the one night. On reflection we both wished we’d spent longer in the whole area from Biarritz up. It is definitely on the return list, G especially loved the “textile free” beach!
The next morning we were on the 11am ferry across the estuary to Royan, for the onward journey to the Ile de Re.