What a shame our last day of exploring the beaches of the western coast of France and it is peeing it down! Never mind we have come this far and we are not going to duck out on the most southerly beach of the western coast of France and so all waterproofed up we strolled down to the waterfront and Plage d’Hendaye….

To be fair even in the rain it is a beautiful long sandy beach though all the central part appeared to be completely tidal….

With may be a bit of beach left at the southern end and Spain just literally across the river and clearly visible…..

As you can see there were not a lot of people out and about in the rain and even the few surfers looked a little disappointed at the lack of waves compared to the previous days.

After an hour or so wandering around we made our way back to the van and settled for awhile to try and dry out but after checking the weather forecast, wherein this wet stuff appears to be hanging around for a few days, I decided to move on to our next destination.

Despite the rain we enjoyed a lovely scenic drive through the valleys of the foothills of the Pyrenees wending our way alongside the railway track and the river Nive and occasionally swapping places until we reached our destination – St Jean-Pied-de-Port. To be honest it was probably the most scenic drive of our journey so far.

I was hoping that the rain might have eased up and we could have ventured out to explore this pretty looking town but it was not to be. Instead we cranked the heating up to dry our clothes and snuggled down for a lazy afternoon.

Thoughts of the day:

• At the risk of being a bit controversial here – I think Scotland and in particular the Outer Hebrides has broken us – will any scenery or coastline match up?
• We have visited 436 beaches in France and that’s with having missed a chunk in the middle from the Crozon peninsula to the Côte d’Argent – that is a lot of sand!! Quite a fair bit of it is now travelling with us!

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 44
• Miles walked – 4
• Beaches – 1
• Aire – £10.60 EHU
• Groceries – £41.25

A bit of a grey one today but not as cold and although it was wet overnight it stayed dry all day. Our next and penultimate hop on this journey south was a few mile further south in St Jean de Luz a bustling coastal town.

We did plan to spend a couple of nights here but when we arrived at the Aire the vans were packed in like sardines (I mean around 50cm between vans!) and the Aire itself is sandwiched between a main road and railway station – we parked up in an available space and set out for a walk around the coastline of the town – heading first northwards through the narrow streets….

To the main beach – Grande Plage….

No dogs allowed so we walked along the promenade to the small beach at the far end of the – Plage de St Barbe…..

Retracing our steps we crossed over the river to the quieter side of town and walking southwards along the shoreline passing Plage du Carre….

Across Plage de Socoa…..

And Plage de Deriveurs…..

To Fort de Socoa….

And it’s pretty little sandy beach – Plage de Fort Socoa….

At the end of the jetty beyond the Fort we were afforded beautiful views across the sheltered bay to the main town of St Jean de Luz and also along the coast to Spain….

A lovely walk – the beaches here are similar to those of Biarritz, more golden and with coarser sand than those of the Côte d’Argent

On returning to the van, I decided that I really wasn’t comfortable being so closely packed in between neighbouring vans and that having seen all the beaches here and had a wander through town, we would move on to our next and final bit of coastline – the much smaller resort of Hendaye.

Thoughts of the day:

• The Aire in St Jean de Luz is the worst I have encountered on this journey and it really was too close for comfort – it pays to have a back up plan.
• We just have one more day left on this coastline – unless of course the weather is exceptionally nice tomorrow and we decide to stay. We are a little ahead of schedule but no matter that just means we can take the inland journey back up to Caen a bit slower.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 16
• Miles walked – 7
• Beaches – 6
• Aire – £13.25 no electric