Le Teich, Ker Helen and a hot walk along Le Sentier Littoral

We've driven about four hours further south now and are just outside a small town called Le

Teich which is on the edge of the Arcachon basin. Part of our journey included driving over the Dordogne river which was amazingly wide. The next bridge over from ours had beautiful stone arches to either side, like a Victorian viaduct, but then an ugly metalwork structure actually crossing the river. I guess the middle section had been destroyed in the past, but the replacement didn't look the part at all.



Our current campsite is the pretty Ker Helen which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary next year and is almost completely shaded by mature trees. Each of the 'streets' between the pitches has a name and, as you can see from the photo, I have my very own Allee. We're not pitched up along it though as there's no electric hook-up there. We've not yet tried out the pool but have played boules - I won again, but only just this time - and also spent a while exercising on their outdoor mini gym. I wouldn't be seen dead in an indoor gym, but I love trying out the outdoor ones! Several of the Spanish parks we saw last year had them too. We were surprised on first wander around yesterday that there didn't appear to be any table tennis. Today we discovered that we had been looking in the wrong place - there are actually two tables so we'll probably get practicing again tomorrow or Friday.



Tomorrow we intend travelling to see the famous sand dune, the Dune du Pilat, which our friends Dave and Gilly have stayed near to in previous years, raving about the area on their return. Having seen lots of their photographs is part of the reason we included the region on this year's itinerary. To potentially pass so close by and not visit seemed daft! Apparently the dune is the highest in Europe - more hot walking then! - but we might also get a nice swim at Plage Pilat nearby. The swimming within the Arcachon basin is very hit and miss due to the distance out the water goes at low tides. I was amazed by the sight of stranded boats on Ile De Re, but it's also a regular occurrence here.



Today's hot walk was along a stretch of a Sentier Littoral which begins just across the road from Ker Helen. I spotted the signpost when we arrived yesterday and took the opportunity of taking a quickish look while going for an evening jog. This was my first running attempt in months, since that bloomin' muscle went again, and I'm happy to report that all went well! Jogging about 5 minutes then walking for the same, and total duration of just over half an hour. It felt good to be getting out there again so I must keep the effort going. Anyway, as the route was so beautiful, Dave and I both set out walking it this morning. The footpath/cyclepath is about 4 miles of sandy track and goes out through marshes and along the shoreline between the sea and the outer edge of an ornithological park. We caught glimpses of various waterbirds including coots and herons that we recognised, and others that we didn't know. There were also huge dragonflies whose wings almost clattered as they flew! The route has sandy beaches, scented shrubs, lakes and pools, and towards the end we also passed by the visitors centre for the park where you can buy passes to get even closer to the birds. Dave's planning to return with his decent camera at some point to get some good photos so in the meantime, the view below is one I took on my first evening's run.

Sardines and ping pong and trouble getting in the sea

Our adventurous eating knows no bounds! Today's lunch was sardines bought fresh from

Waiting for the tide at La Flotte 

the local market which we griddled and served up with toasted slices of our home-baked bread. I don't think the fish were caught by any of the boats pictured in La Flotte harbour though. They are all completely stranded by the lack of tide which was a pretty odd sight.

Yesterday afternoon saw the opening of our new Table Tennis set packaging and we played two games, both of which Dave won. My best score was 13 to his 21 so not a complete whitewash. Today we have played two lots of three games, one this morning and one this afternoon. Dave was still totally triumphant but my best score has crept up to 15! We also played our first games of boule with the fab set I bought at St Wilfrid's. Now this game I can win! We played 14 ends and I won 9 to 5.

We didn't go back to the beach swimming today as it wasn't so hot as yesterday. After having got myself into a bit of a tizz trying to get into the sea yesterday, perhaps this is for the best. There is a stony strip of sand at the tideline of the Plage Les Gollandieres so my footing was unsteady and a strong wave knocked me over. This wouldn't have been a major problem except that it was followed by a half dozen similar, each timed to not allow me to get up and further out in time to avoid them. Exasperating! Once past the breaking waves, it is easy and fun to bob with them, but the first few feet need careful timing. When leaving the beach car park, we saw a car with a new-to-us country letter on its numberplate: OC. Most cars here are F and there's a smattering of GB, D and NL, but we'd never seen OC before. Any ideas? We tried to think of countries all the drive home and eventually had to give up and Google it. It's not a country after all. OC is the unofficial lettering for the Occitane region of France!

St Martin is the next small town along from La Flotte. It is perhaps even more picturesque ( and it's harbour has water in it!) and has an incredible proportion of expensive clothes shops compared to any other products. We wandered around for a couple of hours this afternoon. Practically all the houses are whitewashed with their doors and window shutters in similar shades of green or blue. The overall effect is of perfect tranquillity but I wondered if homeowners only have certain proscribed colours from which they can choose? I liked one particular type of shutter latch in the shape of a behatted woman. It reminds me of the dolls that Nana used to stitch to the tops of knitted loo roll covers. Does anyone still knit, or even have, them? Dave treated us to a gorgeous ice cream each at La Martiniere, a shop claiming to be in the top five ice cream makers in France. Big claims indeed but certainly justified. Dave had a scoop of cherry and a scoop of pear flavours, and I had pistachio and coconut. The pistachio was much smoother and richer than the Sheringham one.

Got to go now. Sunday night is Deadwood night and we need to find out if William is ok ... !

Ile de Re shutter latch 

We are proper caravanners now

And all thanks to the St Wilfrid's Rotate charity shop in Terminus Road in Eastbourne!

I met my friend Kerry in town yesterday morning for coffee. We went to Beanzz on Grove Road who do a lovely rooibos tea. I would also highly recommend their peanut whoopie pies but, as I ate the last one, that's probably unfair gloating. I had trawled a half dozen charity shops on my way to meet Kerry, searching for a pepper mill. Our nice wooden one is restaurant size so not the best thing for the caravanning life. Unfortunately, the cheapest we've found new is £9 and I'm loathe to pay that much, especially for naff plastic. Anyhow, I failed in the pepper mill hunt, but did spot this instead:

A boule set! I'm exaggerating I know, but seemingly everyone had a boule set while we were away. A couple of the campsites even organised weekly tournaments with decent prizes. And now we have our own set too. We just need to learn how to play ...