13 September 2022 - One more night in France

Miles driven today = 102

Total Miles to date = 867

We took a bit longer than usual to get under way this morning.  Yesterday evening the wind got up so we decided to retract the awning before we went to bed.  The wind had brought down huge numbers of 6 inch long pine needles from the trees above and we tried to clear as many of these from the awning as possible before we wound it in.  Unfortunately, in the dark we missed a few and these clogged up the mechanism, so we had to start all over again this morning with assorted brushes and scrapers before it would stow away properly.

We stopped in at the E Leclerc supermarket in Biscarrosse and as well as stocking up on all the usual supplies we managed to find ourselves a double duvet cover to replace the single one we inadvertently brought along with us.

Then we were off on the D652 to Parentis-en Born, the D140 to Leu and the D626 to Labouheyre, where we picked up the A63 Motorway.  Short stretches of this are toll, although we weren't altogether sure whether the tolls only applied to vehicles over 7.5 tons, but as we approached these sections Google Maps took us off down a slip road to follow the bumpy D road which runs alongside the motorway until the next non-toll section, where we rejoined.

Eventually, after a lunch stop, we approached Bayonne on the D817, with its multitude of roundabouts and traffic lights.  This was far and away the heaviest urban traffic we have experienced on this trip and in retrospect a short blast on the toll road to by pass the chaos would have been a sound investment.

We crossed the Adour estuary and then the much narrower channel of the Nive, from which we got a brief but interesting glimpse of downtown Bayonne and its elderly riverbank architecture.

We then bypassed Biarritz but I was already feeling rather frazzled from the experience of urban driving in a large vehicle so we looked for somewhere to spend the night on the coast near St Jean de Luz.

We plumped for a municipal site, Chibau Berria, one of four campsites which virtually encircle the Plage d'Erromardie.  It's only a short walk to the beach.  Some of the other campsites are even closer but seem much more crowded and with our ACSI card we are only paying €14 for the night including electric.  The site has so many shower blocks that I reckon everybody here could soap themselves down simultaneously.

You can hear the distant hum of the motorway and the odd train rattling through but I don't think either will prevent us from sleeping soundly given it's a good few degrees cooler this evening than it has been of late.

St Jean de Luz Town Centre is about a 45 minute walk away but we were quite happy going for a swim and chilling on the beach, which is a mixture of coarse sand and pebbles.  Much like Biscarrosse the surfers were out in force trying to catch the perfect wave.

The tide gradually chased us further and further up the beach so we retreated to a bar for a small carafe of vin blanc before heading back to the van for our tea.

From the bar we could just about make out the Spanish hills as the coastline does a right turn and heads west along the first part of the Iberian peninsula.  Tomorrow we will follow it.

14 September 2022 - Donostia-San Sebastian