Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th January 2024
Leaving Sarriguren in Spain, we were then effectively retracing our steps to the French border. Border? …what border? it seemed that all of a sudden we were in France, where we headed to the Atlantic coastal town of Capbreton to overnight on a large aire.
Capbreton (Monday)
Capbreton is a small town which has a small fishing village at its heart. Although it is clear that tourism is now the main economic activity, there is still a fishing industry with boats in the harbour and stalls for the fish market right alongside. When we explored the town, we found that many businesses had effectively closed for the winter with signs saying closed until March.
It has a gorgeous beach and due to its exposure to the Atlantic swells, there are impressive waves, making the town (and the aire, which sits just across the dunes from the sea) very popular with surfers.
There are many defensive pill-boxes on the beach, which would have been up on the top of the dunes until erosion brought them down. They were placed all along the French coast by the Germans in the last war.
Now the sea is attacking them constantly and they provide a handy place for local artistic talent to be showcased:
We walked the length of the beach to the town, where we came across a small group of men playing boules.
The harbour is accessed via a canalised river, which has jetties on each side of the channel.
Our walk back to the aire, took us across the dunes along well marked, fenced off paths, to prevent erosion.
Staying with a Motorhome
As can be seen from the above photograph, the aire is all hard-standing but not level (swe had to use our ramps). Services (including electricity) are provided and places are on a first come basis. Someone came and collected the pitch fee of 8.50€ in the early evening. Despite the size of the aire, it was quiet.
Access is via many small residential streets, many are one-way. The sat-nav was not really to be trusted. Nevertheless, some very large vans were parked-up there.
The only problem was that we found that due to sub-zero temperatures overnight, the water supply was frozen. We had taken some fresh water onboard when we arrived the night before, but had to use water from the van to rinse the toilet cassette.
Roullet-St-Estèphe (Tuesday)
Moving on the following day, we did not explore much off-route, instead heading directly for our overnight destination, a free motorhome aire at Roullet-St-Estèphe, near to Angoulême.
The aire is convenient as it is quite close to the N10, yet it is quiet. All hard-standing and not level, but not too bad. There are services, 2€ for 10 minutes water or 10 minutes electricity. Not sure what you could do with 10 minutes electricity; we did not need either.
It is close to a pleasant village with a Boulangerie where we purchased a baguette and some cakes for tea. …and jolly good they were. You can also take a walk down paths from the bottom end of the aire where there is a large field and a children’s play area.
"See-u-Later" 