September 19, 2014
Medoc to Arcachon, the slow road: Dam..I am still crazy about the photos getting deleted!
This morning I got up and went for a walk through the gorgeous vineyards,before breakfast. They looked even more lovely in the early morning light.We finally decided on a plan for our last few days in France. We will go to the Basque region, with a stop in Arcachon, and to see the famous Dune du Pilat.After another delicious breakfast, we left our B&B, although we could have stayed longer, it was pretty special.
We took the slow, tiny roads over to the coast to the Arcachon Basin. We didn't actually travel very far, but it was a scenic route, that took a long time. We actually went further distances on our bikes in the same time. We drove out to Cape Ferret, stopping at an oyster village that looked like a quaint shanty town. We did have great photos, but as I mentioned...GONE. You can see part on the famous dune from Cape Ferret.
On our way around the basin to Arcachon, we stopped at a bike store to enquire if they had bike boxes they were tossing away. This has been a tough mission since we booked our flight to Lisbon. There are, surprisingly, not many bike shops in France, for such a bike friendly country. Again, no luck with the boxes. Further down the road, in a small town, we spotted a a store with bikes outside. Jackpot! They had just gotten a new shipment of bikes, and they had about 10 boxes outside for us to help ourselves. Now these were not North American size bike boxes....no siree. We were able to put our entire bike in each box, without taking any parts off, and they are super thick. With the boxes we came over with, one wheel, the mudguards, the racks, seat, etc., had to be taken off to barely just fit in the box. We are now crossing our fingers and toes and hoping that they are not too big for the airline. A bike box, is a bike box, I say. I am kicking myself for not taking a photo with my phone of the procedure of getting our bikes out of the van, getting them in the boxes, and putting these two huge boxes in our van, and closing the rear door by 1/4 inch. Ron decided he wanted to get it done right then and there. Of course, we were in a tiny, one way ally, parked the wrong direction. Anyway, it is done!We arrived early evening to a wonderful newly refurbished hotel in Arcachon, right on the beach. We had pizza for dinner, which was nice change.Arcachon is a really nice beach city with a fantastic, long pier, and the beach, of course is beautiful.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |