Biarritz

Today we said goodbye to the Dordogne and instead decided to wander down to Biarritz, just short of the Spanish border. We'd had a recommendation from the France Camping group on Facebook for a campsite called Pavilion Royal in Bidart, just a couple of miles along the coast and with direct beach access. It's not the cheapest of sites (35EUR a night for the motorhome with electric and 2-persons out of season) but it is very well located as well as being recommended by lots of folks.

Before leaving Rauzan we visited the wine cave to pick up a case of the red Bordeaux wine I'd sampled yesterday, and we also refuelled nearby (25mpg average for that tankful). The satnav then led us on various minor roads through the vineyards before crossing the Garonne river and heading through the forest of the Gascogne regional park. On the way we spotted a petrol station that had LPG so decided to have a go at topping up our Gaslow LPG tank. We has some initial difficulties using our own French adapter, with various leaks etc., before the lady from the filling station loaned us there one which worked fine. The tank took 8l and cost off of 6.59EUR which isn't bad given we've been out for 12 days and were even using the heating at some points in the UK.

Biarritz is just on the other side of the larger town of Bayonne and once we'd worked our way through the heavy traffic there our satnav took us right to the campsite. This was indeed very nice, with a fair number of UK folks on-site as well as a mix of other European nationalities - especially Germans. As well as the usual "silver surfers" like us there were a fair number of real surfers (a lot younger!) drawn to the big swells coming in from the Bay of Biscay. We had a walk along the beach before deciding to retire to our van with the weather deteriorating a bit, with even some light rain.

Tomorrow we think we'll walk the couple of miles into Biarritz and do some sightseeing as the weather is supposed to improve.