The Ham Nomads

11 Jan 2015. <FR> Bordeaux, Gironde; Lesperon, Aquitaine; Tarnos, Landes; Plage Hendraye, Pyrénées-Atlantiques —

Woke up in our aire outside the Casino supermarket outside Bordeaux. Went in to shop — on a Sunday the place is open from 9am to 12:30. Were able to do the photocopying to inform the British vehicle registration of our changed engine number. We'll send it off from somewhere in Spain!

Today was a major driving day, getting us down to the Spanish border (but still in France). There were a couple of toll freeways in our path, but the Garmin is sufficiently intelligent to give us alternative routes. And avoiding tollways means that we go through some delightful villages. We dropped our postcards and letters into the yellow post box outside the Post Office (La Poste) in the little village of Moustry on one of our detours.

The motorways were wide, fast, and a little boring. The other roads were full of interest — long avenues of trees, the villages themselves interesting, and, all-in-all, a great drive.

We stopped for lunch at a service stop on the highway, at Océan-Ouest, on the A63 about midway between Labouheyre and Bayonne. We took advantage of this stop to do a little housekeeping — emptying the loo and topping up our drinking water. We were amazed at all the trucks parked off there. Was this a regular happening, or was this something to do with Sundays, or was it in support of the day of mourning victims of the Charlie-Hebdo massacre. (In Paris today, all the leaders of the European Union Countries, as well as the Prime Minister of Israel and the King of Jordan, were marching arm-in-arm in the Place de la République!)

We settled in to McDonalds at Tarnos, just north of Biarritz. It was after dark before we left, and we drove on to the aire at Plage Hendraye, just short of the Spanish border, for the night. This one was not a free aire (contrary to what our book said), but when we paid our €10, the boom gate lifted and we were able to join the three motorhomes already there.

Distance driven — today, 144 miles ( 232 km ); to date, 10,806 miles ( 17,391 km )