UK Travel

Sunday 30th November 2025 – Les Sables d’Olonne to St Jean-de-Monts….

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The weather gods listened and we had an absolutely glorious sunny day a nippy start with some frost on the ground but hey I can do nippy. We started our day with a brief walk down to Plage du Goulet – looking totally different in today’s sun….

Keen to press on we were soon away and headed to our first location Les Sables d’Olonne and it’s Grande Plage….

As with half of France we enjoyed a lovely wander along the promenade (the tide is high), watching the surfers…

And admiring the sculpture named Ulysse, standing proud in the surf….

A bit reluctantly we moved on to our next location – Bretignolles-sur-Mer but here we struggled to find parking (height barriers at every car park) to visit the long and remote sandy Plage des Dunes, which we then just had to view from afar….

We did however find a space to park by the main Plage de Bretignolles s/m…..

The tide is still pretty high and so there really wasn’t much of a beach for us to enjoy, however we enjoyed a walk along the promenade before moving on to our final location St Jean-de-Monts and it’s glorious wide sandy beach and far reaching pier…..

A great stroll to end our day before moving slightly north to find our Aire for the night.

Thoughts of the day:

  • I love the European habit of strolling along the seafront on a lovely sunny afternoon.
  • A couple more beaches to visit tomorrow before we head back to Caen for our ferry crossing next week – where has the time gone?

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 51
  • Miles walked – 6
  • Beaches – 5
  • Aire – £9.22 EHU
  • Groceries – £41.95

Tuesday 11th November 2025 – Cap Ferret….

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A lovely sunny and warm day as we discover more of the delights of this amazing spit of land that is Cap Ferret, with pine trees aplenty and the fabulous stretch of beautiful soft sand foreshore backed by white dunes sparsely sprinkled in grasses – a bugger to walk over but I’m sure my calves will thank me in the end!

Our first stop today is Plage de Truc Vert which doesn’t disappoint….

Enjoying the stunning weather we walked southwards to the next beach along – Plage de la Garonne….

Captivated by the little flock of Plovers playing on the shore just ahead of the incoming waves. Next we drove the short distance to the Point of Cap Ferret though disappointingly unable to get to the beach there as the whole area is closed off for restoration works, however we followed the permissible footpath back around the point where we were able to (after a climb over the inevitable dunes) access the beach….

Across the dunes we also have a good view of the Dune du Pilat (the tallest dune in Europe) across the other side of Arcachon Bay – though we shall get a closer look over the next few days…

Next we ventured into the village of Cap Ferret – a mix of extremely large houses and down on the shore front hundreds of little chalet style properties, some lived in, some holiday homes and many little impromptu bars or businesses selling fresh oysters – doing a fair trade today as it turns out this is a bank holiday here for Armistice Day.

The beaches here are not as sweeping or dramatic as those on the Atlantic coast but quite sheltered in Arcachon Bay – Plages de Mimbeau and further out on a spit of land – Plages de la Conche….

For now we have had enough driving around and returned to a small free Aire that we had spotted on our way through, away from the village and back in the forest by a beach that we purposefully passed by earlier. Once parked up we headed straight down to enjoy the last of the days sunshine where we belong – Plage de la Torchère….

We walked along the shore as far as the next beach (the last before Cap Ferret) – Plage de l’Horizon before calling it a day, a very good day and heading back to the van.

Thoughts of the day:

  • This weather combined with these beaches – we are just in heaven right now.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 23
  • Miles walked – 8
  • Beaches – 7
  • Aire – free
  • Groceries – £33.49
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A life less complicated

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Having completed a large chunk of the British coastline and visited more than 1450 beaches on the way, we are off again, this time venturing into the unknown as we cross the English Channel for the first time and see what the coastline of France has to offer. If you would like to see our earlier journeys around the UK, they have loosely been grouped together by location and you can find the links below.

NB some of the links below are not yet working properly as it is a work in progress….

Beach Guides:

To catch up with our earlier adventures in:

  1. Cornwall from 5th October 17 to 11th February 18 –   Freedombird in Cornwall
  2. Devon from 11th February to 19th March 18 – Freedombird in North Devon
  3. Somerset from 19th March – 29th April 18 – Freedombird in Somerset
  4. South Wales from 29th April – 14th August 18 – Freedombird in South Wales
  5. West and North Wales from 14th August – 21st October 18 –