Le Garthieu

Cumul: 1000 km !

No coffee here either and we cycle 17km on a long flat stretch in this beautiful forest before reaching a great - and so welcome… - beach café in Montalivet, which serves breakfast with good jams and good bread, and fresh squeezed orange juice, right above the beach.
The weather is strange, cloudy, windy, warm, moist… We spend too much time on this terrasse chating with the lady running it but it feels right. We discuss our two options for tonight : to a quiet natural camping near the lake of Hourtin, with no restaurant within 7km radius, or pushing to Lacanau (20 extra km) where everything is shut for the season except a huge campground of 600 pitches with its own restaurant. A quick call and we hear the restaurant is privatised tonight, which means a good amount of noise and cycling to the Moutchic for dinner..
So we head to Hourtin, and stop in the village for some groceries. The Fromagerie-Epicerie called “Georgette” and the butcher shop opening only at 16h, we leisurly sip a nice refreshig beer at the local café across the Church yard. A real feeling of France. “Georgette” has a lot to deliver, including a 100% Merlot Médoc wine and we then head to Campground l’Acacia, at the end of a sandy road in the woods.
It is hard to describe that feeling of “finally having arrived” somewhere, but we all experience that sometimes, and this is what happened. The gorgeous park is 5hectares (10 acres) and there is then only a dozen of pitches occupied, tucked under the trees around the big flowery meadow. We choose a pitch surrounded by heather in bloom. There are quality wooden tables and chairs available next to the reception, where we can enjoy our picnic. Organic coffee is offered in the morning for bikepackers… Showers are designed like a homely bathroom, with windows, and a bench outside.
The owners have been happy here for the past 27 years, and one can sense it. Everything is clean, well thought of, they have put themselves in the shoes of their visitors.
During the night we hear the stags calling in the deepest part of the forest…Read more