Well, this was that crazy time Frankie and I hired Jean-Claude VAN Damme (more commonly known as a campervan) and toured the west coast from Hossegor, France to San Sebastiàn, Spain.
Dates: July 31 – August 04 2015
- Campervan – https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3317355
Frankie and I met up in Bordeaux (Auberge de jeunesse de Bordeaux to be precise, which might I add is a fantastic hostel in Bordeaux) and took a blablacar to Biarritz where we met our airbnb host to collect our red VW campervan. We signed a few pieces of paper, received a few local tips and we were on our way! There were a few questionable driving experiences to start the trip – namely trying to avoid to autoroute at the last minute and then reversing and stalling in the middle of a major roundabout, and then not knowing the trick to getting a french car in reverse and spending a good 15 minutes trying to reverse out of a car space as we inched closer and closer to a wooden post. But we won’t dwell on that, my skills driving a manual van on the wrong side of the road was otherwise flawless.
First stop: Hossegor. We arrived just in time to park the van and head to the bar from a celebratory beverage. Not surprisingly, we found ourselves a strange Australian man in this Byron like coast town to chat with. Nothing too exciting to report but after a 12:01am birthday tequila (and maybe a few more drinks), we retired to the back of Jean-Claude.
Would you believe that on my 27th birthday I woke up in Hossegor with a killer hangover? Yeah, well I did. And let me tell you, it is fairly awful to suffer a brutal hangover while living out of a small caravan with next to no facilities. After many hours suffering alone, I finally managed to accidentally wake Frankie and convince her to take me to the beach and boulangerie to recover.
Around lunchtime, we decided that a birthday spent entirely in one country would not suffice. So just jumped back in Jean-Claude VAN Damme and hit the road en route to San Sebastiàn, Spain. En route, we passed through the town of Bayonne that was celebrating the fêtes de Bayonne (the summer festival similar to running of the bulls whereby the whole town is decked out in red and white). Bayonne was mayhem! The streets were so busy with people and cars that I actually saw a small car parked on a set of stairs! Unfortunately (or fortunately), we had our hearts set on San Sebastián and continued on… We found ourselves the most spectacular parking spot overlooking Zurriola Beach (J.Mig.Barandiaran Kalea, 20013 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain) and here began a food, sangria, and beach love affair with San Sebastián.
We planned to stay for only one night but as you can see from the photos, with good weather it is the kind of place you might never want to leave. We enjoyed a cute little “home” cooked omelette and sat on the seawall to enjoy the sunset before making our way into town for a sangria night cap and final cheers on an excellent birthday spent sprawled across one delightful coast and two beautiful countries.
As we walked through the old town, we saw an endless display of tapas and realised the error of our ways having eaten a most meal in the van. DELICIOUS PINTXOS EVERYWHERE!! It was too late the undo the damage but we decided in that moment that we best stay for another night to enjoy all that San Sebastián had to offer. Instead, we purchased ourselves a sangria and perched on the steps of the cathedral where we met a delightful american couple who we subsequently spent the entire evening and majority of the following day with. It was thanks to them that we found ourselves enjoying a delicious lunch of mussels and beer at “La Mejillonera” before setting off the enjoy Zarautz for the afternoon. Zarautz is where we first sampled the “Gâteau Basque” aka Basque cake. Oh boy was it tasty. I think we went on to sample up to 3 other varieties to confirm that it was in fact as delicious as we remembered.
That evening, we returned to our prime parking bay in San Sebastián and set off into town to enjoy a pintxos dinner. I won’t take credit for the selections but will instead direct you to this huffington post for the food crawl we undertook.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phoebe-lapine/san-sebastian-food_b_3843675.html
Despite the small plates, after sampling up to 10 plates collectively along with a few (awful) “Txakolí” local wines, we rolled back (via a delightful sunset) to the van. (I just googled Txakolí and it is described as this “Txakolí is a young, fruity white wine with moderate alcohol content” … I would be more inclined to describe it as goon). Anyway, moving on from that…
The next morning we packed up our van (aka closed the sliding door) and set off back to France via Hondarribia. Hondarribia is a small Basque town know for its cute buildings often decorated with flowers. From the spanish town of Hondarribia, you can look across the Txingudi bay to France. We enjoyed a gelato, which melted faster than we could eat it, and resumed the journey.
En route to Biarritz, we stopped in at Plage d’Acotz for a quick swim and to finally utilise our camping chairs (that we, obviously, forgot we had). This town was very reminiscent of the central coast with it’s small beach, multiple camping grounds and one small corner store. Unfortunately the weather was dismal in Biarritz but we found a great parking spot on the hill, played a few rounds of roulette (the casino is in the prime, seafront position) and then proceeded onto Café Jean, opposite Les Halles. Café Jean was an excellent watering hole with hundreds of youngsters enjoying a beverage or two. The following day we returned to Les Halles to enjoy some more basque cake, fresh baguettes, cheese, olives and anything we could get our grubby hands on. This food hall was certainly on the slightly more expensive end of the spectrum as Biarritz is a very popular, wealthy tourist destination.
To finish the adventure, Frankie and I returned to Bidart where we enjoyed a final beer in Jean-Claude VAN Damme, dropped Frankie at the “Bidart Surf Hostel” (which looked absolutely amazing, might I add), said our sad farewells and then I proceeded on to Biarritz station to be collected by my blablacar…
Overall, I had an absolutely amazing birthday weekend spent with an old friend on the other side of the world with not a care in the world!!
À bientôt mon amie, Frankie!!
bellesoloist 