This is such a beautiful area by the sea and I am sorry to be departing from Camping de Versalle tomorrow as I take this look back at the last two days.
The cycling here is great to get up and down the coast, flat, wide separated routes which I took advantage of particularly yesterday to do a 20 mile loop from here out to this magnificent highest sand dune complex in Europe, and then along the coast through Pyla to Arcachon and back.
Appearing above the tree line
The ‘attraction’ installation at the dune is really well done, but I’m sure it will be absolutely packed in high season. Unfortunately I had made the wrong decision – it has been known! – that I wouldn’t need my heavy-duty bike lock on this occasion, when precisely the opposite was true to enable me to ascend this monster. I contented myself with pushing the bike along the sandy rising path as far as possible before facing the ascent, and no further. I watched a video presentation of its formation thousands of years ago and evolution over time, but short in contrast to how long the Pyrenees took to form. Well worth a read.
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- Does capture the steepness
Enlarge the photo to see the dune in the distance
I had said on first glance after arrival that Arcachon reminded me of the Il de Re, but actually it’s on a larger scale. The beautiful houses and wide boulevards of Pyla were more like Le Touquet or Berck Plage on the Channel/Manche coast, and both it and Arcachon had many Belle Epoque villas. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t include photos of the cycling provision.
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- Bike lane along the coast from Pyla
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- Bike lane and separate walking
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- Even renewing a boardwalk for cycling
Today as planned I mobilised myself to catch the 9.42 train for a few hours cycling round one of my favourite cities. I do love a good river through well-planned public, beautiful spaces reflecting their historic and contemporary architecture setting. France does have the land, and the weather, but also the imagination and will for improving change!
On to Toulouse and its river.