Capbreton Plage Oceanides

After our 50th trip to Decathlon, the purchase of a new scooter and surfboard for the children to learn on, later we arrive in Capbreton just south of Hossegor, at an aire that has the beach as its back garden so are pretty happy with the very basic set up of electricity, cold beach shpwers (and we’re grateful to have an onboard toilet). One of the best things about France is how well set up it is for motorhomes, with so many safe places to camp up, at low cost, in great locations. It seems many French families spend their whole holiday in these aires with huge set ups.

Like most of this coast, the beach is a beautiful long stretch of golden sand and pretty consistent, good surf. The sea is still warm so we all get to try out Amelia’s new board - Nic and I both getting one of our first surfs of the trip. The children love playing in the surf on the bodyboard and surfboard, and building castles; we’re enjoying the sunny weather, it feels more holiday like here, with a big surfers vibe, live music in the tiny beach bar. The children are becoming much more aware of the big waves along this coast too, so neither of them run straightout to sea thankfully now.

We don’t venture out of the car park here, we came for the beach, and it’s so close, we don’t want to spend any hot days in towns right now - the coast here is all about big beaches and surf!

We attempt to get the children totally clean in the beach showers, however, they’re a little cold and so neither of them are keen to stay in long, and poor Coen has no choice as Nic picks him up and showers him down to his whimpers of ‘dold, doldy!’ (can’t quite say the C yet!).

The basic/lack of facilities (cold beach showers) mean we don’t stay long here - as our shower is basically just wardrobe storage full of wetsuits and who knows what, Nic ends up having an interesting conversation with the security guard on the campsite next door as he attempts to sneak in for a shower (the two french girls next door have been doing it, but I suspect their eye lashes flutter a little more than Nic’s) and he is busted - but being the sweet talker he is, after a conversation via google translate, the guard lets him shower, bait we plan to head up the coast to some of our favourite spots to spend a little longer.Read more