Home Travel Out and About in South West France

Out and About in South West France

by Jessica Amey

The Glisten campsite is located in South West France and one of the great things about it is that it’s near to the beach, the mountains, towns, cities and the Spanish border. This means that you could easily find something totally different to do every day.

We spent the first couple of days relaxing by the pool as it was nice and sunny but when the sun disappeared we went out and did some exploring. There is somewhere a bit further up into the mountains called Col D’Ibardin and it’s a really funny little place, it’s actually in Spain and is tax exempt so people basically go there just to shop. There is nothing else there other than about ten supermarkets though, it’s really odd! Everyone is walking around with trolleys full of alcohol because it’s much cheaper, had I been ten years younger I would have been in heaven!

Instead of stocking up on bargain booze though we headed back into the French side of the mountains where you can get a train right up to the very top. The train takes about half an hour and the incline so SO steep!! It was a bit like being on a ride at a theme park, or maybe I’m just a total wimp these days 😉

train-to-mountain-france

When we got on the train it was really sunny but as we started the incline we hit lots of fog.

mountain-train-2

You can just about see the track under all the fog in the photo below, this wasn’t anywhere near how steep it got either!

french-mountain-train

When you get to the top you can get off and explore, there is a restaurant etc up there but to be honest once we got up there I suddenly realised that I hated heights and started to freak out. I couldn’t even get off the train!! So we went straight back down again, it was fun though even if just for the train experience. I would definitely recommend it though and as long as you aren’t bad with heights then you will have a great time exploring up there.

mountain-train

mountain-train-france-2

south-west-france-trainOn the Sunday we heard that there was a coastal road closure between two towns, it’s a huge event called the ‘Fete De La Corniche’. There is a stop off for baguettes and wine at the half way point and everyone goes there to walk along it so we decided to give it a go. One of the things that I noticed was just how active the children are over there. Cherry is pretty lazy when it comes to walking and had we not had her buggy board we would have been in trouble but there were children much younger than her doing the walk and people were looking at the buggy board like it was the craziest thing they’d ever seen in their lives!

You can see the road in the background of this photo, it literally went on for miles and we didn’t even manage the whole thing!

fete de la corniche south west france

We also went to spend the day in Biarritz which is a really lovely city.

Biarritz

biarittz south west france

biarittz south west france

It’s by the coast which appeals to me as I like to be able to combine walking around shops with a trip to the beach. We found a little vintage shop where I couldn’t resist buying a coat for when we get back to the UK. We also had some lunch in a little café.

St Jean de Luz is the town nearest to the Glisten campsite. It’s also on the coast so we went to the beach then had a walk around the market and stopped off for Nutella pancakes, yum. They have a market there too and this is where we did all of our shopping as there was a huge supermarket on the outskirts.

On our way home we stopped off in San Sebastian for the day before going to get the ferry home. It’s great to be near the border of two countries, they feel so different even though they are so close.

Read all about our Glisten Camping holiday.

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