Day 73: Carcans-Plage to Point de Grave

September 29, 2013

Morning gave us the chance to have a look around Carcans-Plage. What we found was a little beach town, with a half dozen restaurants, a tabagie, and a small grocery. The grocery had baguettes and croissants, and so was ok with us. The attendant looked bored, so I sympathized with him about the not exciting job. He enthusiastically reported that the store was closing for the season, today. Later we saw a lot of stuff already sealed up, including several campings. Wild camping may become more necessary for us in the coming two weeks.

The bikeway up the peninsula, well signed as Velodysee

As usual, we stumbled into this place without knowing in advance where we really would be. We have a better understanding now. This is the Medoc peninsula. On the west side there is a string of beach towns, behind which is a protected maritime pine forest. At the north tip are some more, developed towns, including the lovely Soulac. The east side, where we have not been, is famous wine country.

We slowly noticed that this is a special place, but it is **officially**

This is a protected forest of maritime pine

Ah, two other things on this peninsula. Montalivet, first seemed like a crazy campground with scads of little cottages. They ran on for 3 km, all behind a very strong double fence. Soon we saw that this was a "naturist" site. I said to Dodie, who knows what that French word really means. But yup, it's a nudist camp, one of two here. And they are huge! Square kms of housing and 20,000 people in summer!

The other thing is "poulet frites" and steak frites. We have come to reakize that this is the schnitzel or wurst of France, the burgers and fries of the US. That is, the fallback standard fast food. One thing, rotisserie chicken is great!

There were at least three square kilometers of these cabins at the first "naturist" operation.

This sturdy double fence protects the naturists, or vice versa?

Poulet frites turns out to be the national dish.

The Velodysee cycle path runs up the west side, and is well marked. We cruised through the pine forest and on toward Soulac and the ferry terminal at the tip of the peninsula. We passed by the hamlet of l'Amelie, clearly named for our granddaughter. In l'Amelie the church had a unique use of white trim and red brick. I assumed this was truly unique, but soon saw two houses with a similar design. So I assumed a local developer had cooked this up. When we hit Soulac, we found dozens and dozens of similar buildings, with this use of white trim and red brick. Hmmm, maybe this is an all Medoc style?

We decided not to hop on the last ferry, because it would have landed us on the other side toward dark. So we scoped out a nice wild camp by a WC near the terminal, and dropped into a restaurant with outdoor seating, nearby. The waitress first harassed us about where we had parked our bikes, then when asked for the menu, revealed that the place was closed, except for drinks. So, we said, why are there sandwich boards all over the sidewalk describing the specials of the day. Don't know, was the reply, I'm all alone here and can't control everything. Grrr. We cooked TV dinners by our WC.

Tomorrow we will get up early and get on the ferry. Who knows what new, unexpected things we will run into then!