Day 30 - It’s a Jungle Out There

The ferry crossing home was scheduled to take six and a half hours which is bizarre because the crossing has previously taken just four hours and the outbound crossing was five hours. I assume it is to ensure departure and arrival times are at a sensible hour for passengers and particularly staff.

Anyway, we docked dead-on 5.30am UK time and just 20 minutes later we were back on British soil. At 6.25am we were home and firing up the kettle. After unloading a few essentials, we took an investigatory stroll around our garden, which was like an overgrown jungle. We even have a pigeon nesting in our wisteria at the front of the house.

However, despite the heatwave in the last month, the garden was in pretty good shape thanks to our neighbours. Emma and Megan had kindly fed the fish and watered the plants, including the house plants and my mini nursery.

Trip Reflections……

It had been another great 4 week trip, driving up and down the west coast of France. We drove a total of 2326 miles often on the boring, but speedy toll roads.

Our first stay was on the shores of Le Lac de Cazaux et de Sanguinet near Biscarrosse, about two thirds of the way down the west coast of France, The camp site was large and more commercial than we would normally choose, but luckily for us it wasn’t too busy. The bonus with being sited beside a lake was that I was able to hone my paddle board skills!

Our next stay was in the Pyrénées, well actually in the foothills of the Pyrénées, on the outskirts of the fortified town of Navarrenx. It turned out to be an ideal location to drive out to explore the mountains including the highest railway in Europe and over the formidable Col de Tourmalet. We also took advantage of the very very reasonable priced regional Plat-de-Jours.

Next stop was a 2 night stay in the small, but lively fishing town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. It wasn’t cheap, but we decided this was the place to treat ourselves with decent wines and traditional Basque dishes. We also had the added bonus of witnessing Basque celebrations.

We had planned to spend a week camping somewhere close to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, but all campsites were fully booked. In fact at this time of year, we found it difficult to find any available coastal campsite tent pitches in Southwest France.

I have to admit it was Jackie’s idea to head north and spend the remainder of our trip in Brittany. It turned out to be a great decision. We both loved southern Finistère, which is the extreme western department of Brittany.

The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, similar to England’s Land's End.

The campsite was a chilled relaxed affair and was close to a superb sandy beach with crystal blue waters. The local town of Guilvinec had a nice laidback vibe and everywhere was generally spotlessly clean. The Brittany cuisine also appealed to our palettes and I even drank the local cider, which I would never normally choose to do.

Neither of us had ever been to Brittany before and it came as a very pleasant surprise. The only negative I can find is that the weather is very changeable and I imagine the region could be quite dead during the winter period .

We will definitely return……in the summer months.

Song of the Day - Good Morning Britain by Aztec Camera.Baca lagi