The west coast of France was the first place in Europe we explored after heading almost straight across to the UK for a month after Amsterdam.
I feel like our time can essentially be summed up by croissants, surf, wine and more croissants.
The main places we visited in this general region were Étretat, Paris [you can read all about that here, Hossegor & Biarritz. Passing through random little towns, and picturesque countryside along our way heading south towards Portugal.
ÉTRETAT
I am obsessed with this beautiful little town on the north coast of France with it’s striking white cliffs and cerulean blue waters. A place that has attracted many famous artists, all taking in the beautiful natural arches and interpreting them in their own way.
This little slice of paradise was such a welcome sight after some cold and rainy weather around the UK.
We camped two nights in the local caravan park, and enjoyed freshly baked and delivered pastries and baguettes every morning from a sweet little French lady who all but brought them right to your…. van door step… Then we spent another two nights near the lighthouse, where we found an epic wild camping spot and soaked up the sun from our semi private little beach just in front.
We soaked up the sun, ate gelato, drank wine [had to borrow someone’s wine opener as we forgot about the whole ‘corking’ situation], wandered through the quaint little town and explored the little shops and market stalls.
There are some seriously beautiful coastal walks that are worth doing, and some heavenly spots to perch on a cliff and watch the sunset [wine in hand preferable].
HOSSEGOR
After Paris, we drove south, winding our way down the coast towards this little surf town. We didn’t stop in any main cities, as at this stage we were really done with cities and just wanted some serious beach time. Of course soaked up our drive through gorgeous little towns, and beautiful chalets and wineries on route.
We spent around five days in Hossegor, mostly surfing. And it ended up being pretty rainy.
Whilst we loved being able to surf [one of the few places we could during our whole trip], I found Hossegor a hard place to get a vibe from.
It’s kind of spread out, without a really clear central area, not like some other cool “surf towns” I’ve been to…. or lived in… aka Byron Bay. You kind of have to drive a further than you think to get to the town and then to the surf beach. Not so much a walking around kind of place.
That said, we had a few days of really fun surf and found only my most favourite mural ever. We did enjoy a few aperols at sunset and French fries at sunset by the beach. But to be honest, I’m not sure I would really bother visiting if I didn’t surf.
BIARITTZ
This is the town I wish we’d spent a few more days in, in hindsight. However unfortunately we got there with the forecast predicting a week of rain. And after being rained out in the UK and Hossegar, we wanted PURE SUMMER. So headed off and made a bee-line for Portugal [missing out on Sans Sebastian and some other places in Northern Spain I wish we hadn’t].
Anyways from the day we spent in Biarritz, it definitely had a clearer central area with a lively cafe strip and streets filled with cute shops.
The coastal walk is BEAUTIFUL. I highly recommend doing this. There are some incredible vistas, beautiful little bays to swim in and if you’re lucky you might see the sand artist working his magic.
OTHER PLACES:
The beauty, and the problem with van life, is passing through incredible places and not even knowing where you are. So I actually don’t remember much else specific, other than the countryside being incredibly beautiful to drive through.
La Rochelle
We passed through here for a night or two. Quite a cute little harbour town, some nice cafes and we stumbled upon really great fresh produce market.
Bordeaux
We didn’t go into the actual city, but explored some of the surrounds and of course… drank much wine. There was a free campsite at a winery we found on our app. We spent the evening walking around, taking photos and eating a lot of grapes.
TOP TIPS:
Consider not visiting in August
Essentially all of France goes on vacation in August [lucky timing for us, it was RIGHT when were there]. This means everywhere we went, we had serious trouble trying to book into campsites [as they were full] and most of them were 3 x their usual price.
Make a morning ritual
Take time to slow down, find a different cafe every morning and enjoy your morning coffee and croissant. Then move on to hunting down a fresh baguette. This is literally some of our favourite memories from France and such a fun little morning ritual to enjoy.