Blaye to Sare

4-6 October 2009

Detoured via Arcachon and the Dune of Pilat as we headed south, an impressive sand dune (107 metres high) to rival Moreton and Fraser (kids would have loved it, Melissa … and look, Lloyd, more steps!)

Short cut down

Got into Sare late (again), so weren’t able to appreciate the scenery until the next morning. Imagine Maleny at its greenest, and scatter it with crisp white Spanish-influenced houses with deep red shutters. The area is bilingual with street and road signs in both French and Basque (and sometimes Spanish as well, since we’re just a stone’s throw from the border). Basque seems to lean heavily on the letters x, y and k, and we can’t begin to imagine how to say the Basque version of most street and place names (although we did discover that ‘tx’ is said ‘sh’ when I ordered a pre-dinner drink called something like a ‘tximosa’).

The lovely village of Espelette, with buildings strung with chilis

Took ‘le petit train de la Rhune’ up to the top of ‘the Rhune’ the next morning. The mountain straddles the border so we had stunning views into Spain as well as France, right back up the coast as far as Biarritz.

Train track in the foreground and up the mountain in the background

Very windy at the top!

Drove into Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz in the afternoon. Particularly loved Saint-Jean-de-Luz , a picturesque fishing and beach town. Another warm sunny day without the crowds that apparently pack the town in season. Biarritz is very much a grande dame with some lovely stately buildings, but we could see the potential for her putting on the glitz in season.

Miscellaneous other images ...

Workplace health and safety

So thanks to our GPS we got to see all sorts of countryside... this was nearly wide enough for the car