Chateaux, Vineyards and Vending Pizzas!

The drive for the last few hundred kilometres in Spain was a stunning one through mountainous regions into Basque country. The AP1 took us across and through mountains – tunnel after tunnel with snow topped rocky mountain views. 

We must’ve travelled through numerous tunnels some of them 2-3km long – I wondered how long it took them to build these tunnels, what did they do with the rock they tunnelled through? The AP 1 is a toll road and we spent over €20 that day on tolls but if we didn’t have this road to get to France it would have been a very different journey altogether.  

We crossed the border into France and arrived at beautiful Biarritz just after lunchtime. There was a super little Aire at Milady Beach about a mile from centre of Biarritz.

Biarritz first became well known for its whaling but after a while perhaps the whales got wind of this but whaling dwindled out and it became a popular place known for its healing waters and clean air. Rich Parisians would spend their winters here or convalesce for months in the guest houses on the front high above the beach. Princess Eugeni, wife of Napoleon III built a palace for herself right on the beach front, now the infamous Hotel du Palais and it was frequented by many famous guests including Queen Victoria. 

Biarritz is still an attraction for the wealthy, the stunning beach, the Grand Plage, the Old Port and the Cotes des Basques with its smart terraced houses atop the cliff and gardens leading down to the beach below.  The town is full of shops with designer labels, Artisan foods, brasseries and restaurants offering gourmet seafood but it recently became a hot spot for surfers with the Atlantic surf on both Grand Plage and a few spots up the coast. We enjoyed a lovely couple of days here relaxing along with the French – Bob spent time metal detecting hoping to find some lost diamonds rings!

From Biarritz we drove up the Bordeaux coast and stopped off at a Vineyard that provided park-ups amongst its vines! At Chateau Marquis de Vauban in Blaye deep in Bordeaux region we were greeted by the Proprietor Mr Mace. This vineyard has a Domaine of 52 hectares and has been in production since 1795.  They produce 150,000 bottles a year.

We were very keen to try the wine, so after parking up amongst the vines we arranged for a private tasting with Mr Mace in French! This was hilarious,  I had to listen very hard and translate as best I could to Bob. Bob was suitably impressed with my French as I tried to explain the history of Bordeaux wines and their connection with the English. Perhaps it got better with each wine we tasted, we were impressed with the wine so much so that we bought two cases.

We’d left George tied up outside the van and when we returned he was howling for us, not a good sign for us leaving him alone very often! To cheer him up we took him for a walk into Blaye and were pleasantly surprised by coming upon a huge citadel (military fortress) on the outskirts of the town next to the Gironde estuary that we could explore.

That night was very cold, I think one of my coldest – we woke up to -4 and a frost outside on the vines that looked beautiful but ice on the inside of our van windows! It took a wee while for the heater to warm us up that morning. Luckily my early morning walks with George do the trick for me and then there’s the hot porridge waiting for me back to the van prepared by Bob!

Our next destination was Ile De Re – another place we have been to before and we love it there and were keen to visit again. Ile De Re is a small island off La Rochelle. It is flat and known for its salts plains and beaches with sand dunes and pine trees. It is also famous for its oysters and other seafood. There are few roads on the island and you are encouraged to use bikes as there are loads of bike trails zig zagging across the island. It has a 4km long red bridge that spans the sea to get to the island and you have to pay a one-way toll of 8 euros.

We got a prime spot on at an Aire near the bridge with sea views and spent a couple of nights there. This was out last night on the Atlantic coast as the next sea we are close to will be the English Channel but we had a couple more stops before we get to the Normandy Coastline.

Chateaubriant set in the very picturesque Loire region was our next destination, but before we had to make a stop at one of the ‘Revolution Laundries’ that are outdoor self service laundrette next to fuel stations to catch up on our washing. This one also had a Pizza vending machine next to it…it was surprisingly busy so the pizzas must be good! We have since come across quite a few of these.

Chateaubriant has a large medieval castle and Renaissance palace set in parklands. It is currently undergoing some restoration but we were able to look around the grounds. In the north of the town during WWII there was a concentration camp and the town was bombed by the allies in 1944 which destroyed part of the castle. The town is actually steeped in history over the centuries due to its location on the Brittany border. The town was quiet when we visited as are most of the towns in France at this time of the year, no one seems to leave their houses.

The Aire we stayed at that night was about 1km from the centre of the town situated amongst 3 lakes and parklands. I enjoyed another frosty morning walk with George the following day exploring the lakes accompanied by the ducks and moorhens who hastily swam away to avoid Georges advances and a single Heron fishing for his breakfast.  

That night we stayed at a small village called Ambrieres-les-Vallees on the border of Normandy. The Aire was owned by a French company called Camping-Car Park that provided electricity and services and barriered parking for motor homers all over Europe. This was the first one we had stayed in so I had to go through the process of buying the membership card and completing my details at the barrier but this was quite straight forward as you could choose your language. There is an app to go with it and you load up the card via the App to pay for your stay. Once this was out the way we set up next to the river and went to explore as we were both hungry. There is very little to say about this village, no one was going around, no shops open and no cafes or restaurants open. The centre of the village was built at the top of a hill and so to get to the village we climbed up some steep steps affording nice views of the surrounding area and the river and weir below. You can’t win them all but we were missing Spain and Portugal and the buzz of activity – the cafes were always open and people hanging the about the towns drinking and talking. I did discover a cycle and walking trail the following morning but even that was disappointing. We have noticed that France is expensive, we are spending more on fuel and food and avoiding eating out as prices are much higher than Spain and Portugal. Gone is the eating out for 20-25 Euros now it might almost be double that!