Since we were camping pretty close to the Spanish border in Dax, we got the mad idea of driving to San Sebastián to check it out. The coastal town has big sandy beach with gives of nearby islands as one of its main attractions. The city itself is a really popular tourist spot. It […]
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A Walk Through Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz has one of those sunny, shimmering, colourful harbours that you’ll see in guidebooks and think: Now that looks really lovely. That’s how it got onto my itinerary anyway. This wonderfully-quaint old town has a lot of water. Various rivers meet the sea here and the view of the sea from the sandy bay stretches […]
Beach Time at Biarritz
Our next stop was further south along the Atlantic coast. Biarritz is a popular seaside and beach town on the Atlantic south western coast of France. Just about 30 kilometres from Spain, Biarritz is known as one of the best surf spots in Europe. On the day I was there, it was really flat though. The area has a […]
Exploring Beautiful Bordeaux
After exploring Bayonne, Espelette and the biggest sand dune in Europe, our next little outing was to the beautiful city of Bordeaux! In 2008 I had lived in Bordeaux for about a month or so and I sort of got to know my way around. I just had to go back to this charming French city […]
Europe’s Biggest Sand Dune, Pyla
Arcachon is a town facing a basin of Atlantic sea, on the western side of France. It’s about fifty kilometers south of Bordeaux and easy to reach by train. The town is relatively new. It was covered by the pine trees of the Landes forest and little wooden huts just 150 years ago. A chilled sea-side town Today […]
Hiking to the Passerelle d’Horzarte
I saw a photo of this beautiful gorge and cool-looking suspension bridge in a travel book, and thought “I’ve got to go there!” And we did! Finding the Passerelle d’Horzarte wasn’t easy. Horzarte is a strange word, and not very French sounding. That’s because it comes from the Basque meaning for “between walls”, holtze arte (referring the […]
A Quaint Basque Town, Espelette
After a day trip to Bayonne, we decided to venture onwards to check out more southerly places like Espelette. If you read my Bayonne post, you’ll know that a paste made form the peppers is used in the curing of delicious Bayonne ham! This is a foodie adventure. A little Espelette history You […]
Bayonne, Enter Basque Country
After leaving Paris and stopping over in Tours for an aimless wander around, we camped over in the town of Dax. From there we took a 40 minute drive south to check out Bayonne. This is pretty much Basque Country. I had been to Bayonne years before and remembered it as being a cool […]
Le Marais, Paris
On the north side of Paris, over on the Rive Droite, you’ll find a funky neighbourhood that spans the third & fourth arrondissement: Le Marais. Today Le Marais area hosts a large Chinese community and is known as the centre of LGBT culture in Paris. It’s also filled with art, beautiful buildings, green squares and cute cafés. […]
Why Visit the Louvre
I like being outside rather than couped up in a museum, although the Louvre is an exception. Situated on the Rive Droite, the Louvre houses almost 40 000 interesting historical and art objects that range from prehistoric times until the 21st century. It is also one of the most visited museums in the world, […]