This past weekend was the weekend of l'Ascension so therefore lasted 4 days.
Gisèle, Gilou, Gaby and I drove about 3 hours to the Atlantic coast to a town called Arcachon to camp for three nights.
Camping is a pretty big way to travel here in France and they have really equipped sites with bathrooms, showers, pools, terraces, places to do your dishes, the whole nine yards. The first night we camped in tents with a view over the Atlantic Ocean and the next night we rented a large army tent where we were able to cook seafood feasts: oysters, mussles, sea snails (yep)!
We had a great time visiting the area which reminded me of a mix between Rhode Island and San Francisco. Driving through the ritzy neigborhoods of gorgeous painted old mansions, pronouncing the unfamiliar names with an imagined posh accent, "Biscarosses", "Arcachonnaise". We tasted cannelés, the Bordelaise dessert typical to the region. We walked along the beaches, dressed more like we were walking on the moon with hoods double knotted under our chins and sleeves balled up over our hands. It was great.
The actual "Dune" which is the main attraction is really incredible: over a mile of sand reaching over a hundred meters high at certain points. It rises out of a pine forest and cascades down into the Atlantic ocean on the other side. When you run down it, its a sensation between skiing on sand and flying, its really magical.
Day or night there are always dozens of paragliders hovered over the dune and the ocean. One twlight Gaby and I climbed the dune to watch them and had one just infront of us, so close we could have touched him had we wanted to. It's like watching humans fly, really, really neat.
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| Cannelés: typical pastry from Bordeaux |
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| Parasailers off the dune |
Gisèle, Gilou, Gaby and I drove about 3 hours to the Atlantic coast to a town called Arcachon to camp for three nights.
Camping is a pretty big way to travel here in France and they have really equipped sites with bathrooms, showers, pools, terraces, places to do your dishes, the whole nine yards. The first night we camped in tents with a view over the Atlantic Ocean and the next night we rented a large army tent where we were able to cook seafood feasts: oysters, mussles, sea snails (yep)!
We had a great time visiting the area which reminded me of a mix between Rhode Island and San Francisco. Driving through the ritzy neigborhoods of gorgeous painted old mansions, pronouncing the unfamiliar names with an imagined posh accent, "Biscarosses", "Arcachonnaise". We tasted cannelés, the Bordelaise dessert typical to the region. We walked along the beaches, dressed more like we were walking on the moon with hoods double knotted under our chins and sleeves balled up over our hands. It was great.
The actual "Dune" which is the main attraction is really incredible: over a mile of sand reaching over a hundred meters high at certain points. It rises out of a pine forest and cascades down into the Atlantic ocean on the other side. When you run down it, its a sensation between skiing on sand and flying, its really magical.
Day or night there are always dozens of paragliders hovered over the dune and the ocean. One twlight Gaby and I climbed the dune to watch them and had one just infront of us, so close we could have touched him had we wanted to. It's like watching humans fly, really, really neat.
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| At the crest of the Dune |
En descendant la pente de sable
On a l'impression qu'on peut voler
au dessus de l'Atlantique qui étend devant toi
En rigolant on dit qu'on arrive à voir la statue de la Liberté sur l'horizon.
Pour moi ca sera vrai dans quatre jours
Seulement quatre.
Dans quatre jours je serai dans l'avion,
et je vais regarder par la fenêtre
Je vais observer la vue de l'Atlantique
étend en dessus de moi
Et je penserai au jour ou on a escaladé la dune
Et en descendant se disait qu'on pourrais voir la statue de la Liberté
qu'on pourrais voler.
Tu me manques déjà ma petite Linz!!! Gaby
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