Woke early and packed
straight away – one of our new chairs broke last night!! Can’t believe our luck
with them!!! Chris got a directors chair style one yesterday which seems to be
good as it is upright. We drove through St Emillion, a gorgeous village, Chris remarked that he would have liked to
have wondered around but the kids wouldn’t have appreciated it so the drive is
a good compromise!! This area has fields
upon fields of vineyards and dotted throughout are the beautiful chateaux of
the name of each wine. Something about
them is really amazing and I love seeing them.
We set the Sat Nav to Biscarosse-plage where we’d seen an aire to stay
at, we glimpsed the Dune de Pilat as we drove past, I'm really excited to see
it. The area suddenly has a completely
different vibe and the villages are a lot less pretty. We found the aire but did NOT like it. It was in a pine forest and crammed full, so, after picking up some massive pine cones, we decided to leave and drove a bit further south to a village called Gastes
where the aire is right next to a marina and on the banks of the ‘Etang de
Biscarosse et de Parentis’.
We were lucky to get a front row pitch and after scrambling together 7€ for the machine as our cards wouldn’t work, we set up. It was stunning. 50m away from us was a river beach that had a marked out safe swimming area and lifeguard. The water was so warm (21C!!!) and felt really strange to walk into – also lots of fish were swimming around much to Evan’s delight. There was a sandy bank at the the back of the beach so Chris went back and got his chair, we were all set up for a fab afternoon!! Both Chris and I went in, kids had a great time. It was lovely to see them enjoy themselves in the water so much and know that they are safe – it didn’t get deeper than 90cm, even 100m from the shore.
We were lucky to get a front row pitch and after scrambling together 7€ for the machine as our cards wouldn’t work, we set up. It was stunning. 50m away from us was a river beach that had a marked out safe swimming area and lifeguard. The water was so warm (21C!!!) and felt really strange to walk into – also lots of fish were swimming around much to Evan’s delight. There was a sandy bank at the the back of the beach so Chris went back and got his chair, we were all set up for a fab afternoon!! Both Chris and I went in, kids had a great time. It was lovely to see them enjoy themselves in the water so much and know that they are safe – it didn’t get deeper than 90cm, even 100m from the shore.
After food we went for a
walk to find the village – didn’t find much just a couple of market stalls
selling fruit and veg, so we bought a melon.
Then we were completely ripped off by a guy selling cheese who charged
us 17€ for a piece of blue cheese we didn’t even really want!! Felt violated!! It did taste good though! Site
was quickly filling up – a French family arrived and put tents and an awning
outright next to us which was pretty rude(!) and they were proper arrogant too,
had a boat so they were clearly far superior to us. There was
an old German couple also next to us who were lovely. It rained in the evening and there was a big
thunderstorm that passed over – the lady nearly gave Chris a heart attack which
she came over to tell us that our vent was still open!! It was the first evening since we’ve been in France
that we had to spend in doors. 2 other
German couples came really close to the old couple and we thought that there
may have been a row but their quirky bohemian style was obviously charming!!
