Day 12 Arcachon on the Atlantic Ocean

Such a great day. Being so close to the Atlantic Ocean we thought we should check it out.

Turns out getting there was super simple. Used 1 day from our Eurorail pass, down loaded the tickets onto my phone, and we headed off. Can’t imagine how I would function without a European SIM card. Only $35 and it’s good for the whole month.

Tram D took us to the station in about 30 minutes - in good time for our train to Arcachon. No trouble finding a seat - chose the upper level.

At the tourist office we asked about renting bikes. They suggested several places, so we chose the closest - 2 Roule Loc. For E$ 13 each for the day, we were good to go.

Arcachon is charming - 200K of bike paths, aesthetic shops & restaurants, miles of sandy beaches. We could easily spend several days here - perhaps a couple of weeks.

We took the bike path to La Dune du Pilat - largest sand dune in Europe - pausing along the way for pics etc, and about 1.5 hours later arrived at a look out point. We weren’t sure we were at the right place, but saw a long set of stairs heading down, so wandered down.

Turns out, while the cars & buses are routed to the top of the dunes, we cyclists, after walking down the stairs, were at the bottom. This was much better - gave such a good perspective on the enormity of the dunes.

Must say, though, having lived in Saudi and having spent numerous weekends in the huge dunes there, we weren’t quite as impressed as perhaps others are.

Heading back we paused for lunch at a lovely spot overlooking the ocean, then biked from there through town as far as the bike path went - which was extensive.

We caught the 5:00 pm train back - and for the first time since we’ve arrived, they actually checked our tickets. Fortunately I could quickly pull up our Digital Eurail passes so all was fine.

All in all a great day.Read more