A Coastal Tour of Nouvelle-Aquitaine

 
A Coastal Tour of Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Take a road trip along the coastline of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, taking in some of France’s best-loved sites as well as some lesser-known gems.

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Slowly, the little train pulls away from the station with a jolt. It’s an instant climb, one cog after another, through the trees and round the bend. Then foxgloves, spiking the grass with purple bells. Hundreds of them. The introductory announcement as we left the tiny station in Ascain had said that we should remain seated on the lacquered wooden benches of the timber carriage. After the first few metres of track, the train’s red and white striped drapes fluttering in the breeze, that’s a tall order, for after the initial trees, the whole of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine coast comes into view. Or at least, it seems like it.

I’m on Le Train de la Rhune, a two-carriage tourist train that celebrates its centenary this year. It carries passengers on the rack railway up and down La Rhune, or rather, Larrun, for this is Basque Country, and Larrun is an iconic and sacred place within Basque mythology.

The train continues to climb an almighty gradient to the summit, past Pottok ponies and more foxgloves. At 905m, Larrun could, perhaps, be described as a foothill to the higher Pyrenean peaks. It is the westernmost at least, and its lower slopes all but reach to the coast.

From the summit, standing beside the red and white striped communications tower that helps. to identify the mountain, I can touch Spain (the border runs across the top), see the Pyrenees to the east and, stretching ahead in the distance, France’s Atlantic coast, a long, thin strip of blistering white sand disappearing north to the horizon.

Train de la Rhune

Pays Basque

Le Train de la Rhune is the southwesternmost attraction deemed à ne pas manquer (not to be missed) within the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. And it’s certainly a very good starting point for exploring the coast. Having gained a bird’s-eye view from La Rhune’s summit, I descend to Saint-Jean-de-Luz where Basque culture, architecture and food combine with on and offshore antics. The pretty town is filled with streets of red and white Basque houses and a small fishing harbour loomed over by La Rhune. It also has a sweeping, sheltered bay of soft sand where watersports aplenty take place. Al fresco diners throng the bars and restaurants of convivial Place Louis XIV, so named because the Sun King married Marie-Thérèse, Infante d’Espagne, in the town. I skip swish Biarritz, made one of France’s most popular coastal resorts by ‘royal’ approval in the 19th century, in favour of Bayonne, the capital of Pays Basque. The city, once a major port on the banks of the Nive and Adour rivers, has an elegant air, with its streets of skinny townhouses dotted with colourful shutters. Its twin-spired Gothic cathedral, with a masterpiece ceiling, dominates the skyline. No less of a religion is to visit the riverside Halles de Bayonne where Bayonne ham, gâteau basque and other market produce is sold. It’s 11am and, at a fresh fish counter in the market hall, customers are sitting down to a chilled glass of white to accompany their purchases.

One long, sandy beach

Except for the occasional harbour, France’s Atlantic Coast within the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is one long, sandy beach. Seaside resorts punctuate the way heading north from Bayonne. Some, like Capbreton and Hossegor, are well-known, especially among surfers who arrive for the Atlantic swell. Others, like Ondres-Plage, are merely a few beach huts selling sandcastle buckets, a restaurant and an ice-cream seller on the edge of what the Landes department is most famous for the hundreds of miles of heavily-scented pine forest and the occasional vast lake, loved by watersports enthusiasts. As Landes ends and Gironde begins, south of the mammoth Bassin d’Arcachon, there’s the ultimate beach: the Dune du Pilat, another of Nouvelle-Aquitaine’s must-see sites. I was here some years ago, revelling in the warmth of the dune sand and the cool of the dense pine forest that reaches as far as the ocean. Now, at Le Petit Nice, the dune’s southern foot, a pale dusk light disguises drizzling rain, and the sun’s rays are like strands of fire entering the sea. The sand at the foot of the dune is not desert yellow, but charcoal black, inches deep. The wind, funnelled off the Atlantic, blows through the pine trees – the few that are still standing.

Two years ago, wildfire ripped through more than 23 square miles of forest around the dune, devastating the landscape. While fresh, vertiginous groundcover has rejuvenated, the blackened stumps and spindly skeletons of dead trees are a stark reminder of those calamitous hot summer days. It comes across as nature’s war zone. I ask the waiter at Chez Aldo, a beachside restaurant among residual pine trees, if the fire reached them. “Non, juste là-bas,” he nods to a spot no more than 50m away. The restaurant was fortunate. The stranded wildlife, less so.

Turning a corner

At Pyla-sur-Mer, Arcachon and l’Aiguillon, the humble immobilier becomes International Real Estate, where the likes of Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Barnes sell upmarket properties from chandeliered rooms. Art Deco villas with high-pitched gables, fancy fascia boards and lacy balconies hide behind allées of plane trees. It’s the same north of Les Grands Lacs at Soulac-sur-Mer, where slightly more modest Belle Époque villas line the streets of the popular seaside resort. Rounding the nearby Pointe de Grave, where the Gironde enters the Atlantic, the wind blows in earnest, unopposed by any land mass to stop the beach sandblasting whoever dares to reach the end of the pier.

Hôtel de Ville at Soulac-sur-Mer

Vine and wine

The northern end of the Médoc, bordering the River Gironde, is a land of open marshes, dissected by dikes, with more ponies and egrets than trees. Travelling south alongside the river, where a traditional carrelet fishing hut stands on stilts above the river, it’s not long before the first few vines appear. I stop off at Château Loudenne, where wine tourism is taking off under the new French owners.

The pink château is rare among wine estates in the Médoc for having its own private harbour on the Gironde. That appealed to its 19th-century owners, two English brothers, as they were able to dispatch their wine easily by boat, including white wine the first château on the Médoc peninsula to produce one. Today’s owners use the tiny harbour for river boat tours.

I continue through the Haut-Médoc along the Route des Châteaux, vineyards peppered by the flush of pink and red roses, delighting in witnessing names that my beloved dad, a huge fan of claret, taught me as a teenager: Cos d’Estournel, Brane Cantenac, Léoville Barton, Kirwan, Palmer, Cantemerle. Slate turrets poke out from vines, the grapes still tiny buds that will, one day, become sought-after wine.

The city of wine

It’s to the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux that I head the following morning, arriving by water taxi along the River Garonne from the city centre. A day’s activities await to discover the world of wine among the halls of the snail-shaped visitor attraction, sniffing pencil sharpenings in the ‘Buffet of 5 senses’ and having fun treading grapes while learning the process of making red wine. I even take a test to find out what wine I am according to personality. But my favourite aspect of the attraction is Via Sensoria, an opportunity to taste four wines within a soothing, sensory setting. Our young guide, Adrien, leads a small group through the four seasons, as we lie back to taste Italian Prosecco, a robust Australian Shiraz and more, while lying on cushions to listen to soundbites.

Bordeaux

Eau-de-vie explorations

From Bordeaux, one of France’s most elegant cities (and the most extensive urban environment in the world to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site), I continue north, crossing into the Charente department. First, I reach Jonzac, an understated town of mellow cream stone with a château and quiet town squares; then it’s on to its busier and more prominent neighbour, Cognac. On the banks of the River Charente, Cognac made its wealth through trading salt prior to its more recent splash with distilling grape juice. The Royal Château de Cognac is the birthplace of King François I, he of Renaissance fame. Today the château makes cognac and is one of several houses worth visiting.

Rémy Martin, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this year, and Camus are other cognac houses with visitor experiences. I choose to visit Hennessy, which is also celebrating a birthday this year – it’s 400 years since the birth of Irish founder Richard Hennessy. Its visitor centre and cellars are on opposite banks of the Charente and visitors can take a boat across the river to travel between them. The tour ends with a tutored tasting.

Towers of strength

Returning west to the coast, my road trip culminates in a trio of lighthouses, the first of which is the red and white lighthouse at Pointe de la Coubre, on the southern edge of the Côte Sauvage. Amid a dune landscape, the pine forests of the wild coast the Forêt domaniale de la Coubre offer a prime spot for picnics in the woods. The Avenue de l’Océan (the D25) is a remarkable coast road accompanied by a traffic-free cycle path through maritime pines, holm oaks and plane trees.

At the northern tip of the Île d’Oléron, which is famed for its oyster beds and salt marshes, the black and white striped Phare de Chassiron sits prominently in a Jardin Remarquable, overlooking the island’s rocky coast.

Then, at the furthest tip of the Île de Ré, having passed a patchwork of vineyards, potato fields and wildflower meadows, stands the Phare des Baleines. There are no remarkable painted stripes here, just 57m of limestone, allowing a panoramic view over the coast of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and beyond, including a distant lighthouse, the Phare des Baleineaux, which stands guard over the strait between Charente-Maritime and Brittany.

There is such diversity here. From a red and white tower on top of a Pyrenean mountain to a lighthouse overlooking the Breton coast, I’ve traversed myriad landscapes. But the unifying factor is a 200-mile-long strip of golden sand. And the sea.

From France Today Magazine

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Caroline is a freelance writer with a focus on European travel. She has toured all areas of France, but none more so than the Loire Valley where she finds the combination of rich historical culture, rural landscape and exceptional architecture – not to mention outstanding wine – an irresistible lure to return again and again. Says Caroline, "With the focus over the next three years on the Loire Valley's connection to Leonardo da Vinci, lovers of art, architecture and French culture are in for a treat when visiting the region with the many additional events and activities on offer." Caroline is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.

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