Monday 12/26: Bordeaux, Arcachon, and the DUNE DU PYLA!!!

Today was a great day, but really really exhausting! We were up at 8am to get ready before being picked up at 9am by Hélène (a teacher from the school). We stopped to pick up Pablo, and then headed towards Bordeaux. I tried really hard to stay awake, but I have such a hard time when I’m in the car… So, of course, I dozed off occasionally. When we arrived, we found a place to park on a little back street and Hélène expertly squeezed the car into the spot. From there, we set off on foot to explore the city. Hélène had lived in Bordeaux 15 years ago when she was going to University, but she hadn’t been back since! She kept exclaiming about how much nicer the city is now that they have put in a new tram system and made many of the inner streets car-free. It’s much nicer walking around when you don’t have the noise or pollution from cars going by!

Most of the buildings are white brick, which is really beautiful (some how it made me think of the buildings in London or Bath). The only issue is when there’s a lot of pollution, the white bricks become a grimy black…so, they have been cleaning the buildings and some of them look just great! Others…not so much.

Photo: Reminds me of England...

Another thing they’ve added is a lovely big path along the river and several nice plazas with water features. We were really grateful for the weather—sunny and blue skies! We weren’t quite prepared for how cold it would be, but in the sun it wasn’t too bad.

After we walked by the river, we headed back into the little, winding streets in town, lined with unique old buildings. It was completely decorated for Christmas and I imagine that it is gorgeous at nighttime!

For lunch we stopped at a restaurant and actually went inside to sit down—mostly so we could warm up! It was a good lunch—I had the only vegetarian item on the menu: shell pasta with roasted veggies in a tomato sauce. Afterwards, Candice and I split a delicious “moelleux au chocolat” which was like a little, rounded chocolate cake with gushy, melty chocolate inside. So delicious! And it was served with a little scoop of caramel ice cream. Mmmm!

After lunch we walked over to see the cathedral (which is party clean and partly not) and the bell tower (which was built separate to the cathedral because they didn’t want the vibrations from the bell to shake the cathedral…).

Photo: The bell tower

Photo: Candice in front of the cathedral, which is partially cleaned...

Around 3:30pm, Hélène offered to take us over to the coast so we could visit the Dune du Pyla (or Pilat…they don’t seem to be able to make up their minds on the spelling because even the signs are all different) and the town of Arcachon. Yes, I slept on the way there.

We got to the dune just before sunset and we climbed up. I assume it’s because it’s winter, but there weren’t any stairs this time… which makes it a real workout to get all the way up! It’s the tallest dune in Europe: over 100 meters! Whew!

Photo: At the top!

The view from the top is breathtaking! The Landes forest stretches out as far as you can see to the East and the ocean stretches as far as you can see to the West! We sat at the top, just taking in the beauty…until Candice and my feet started getting really numb. We had taken our shoes off to climb up and the sand was super cold! So, we figured that it would be time to head back down (plus it was close to sunset and we still wanted to see Arcachon). Running down the Dune is one of my favorite things to do. In the world. I have visited it three times now and it’s such an incredible feeling.

Previous visits to the Dune!

<-- Photo: Me in 2006

Photo -->: Candice, Me, & Maria in 2009

My dream is to one day go paragliding off the Dune, but unfortunately they don’t do that in the wintertime. :( In any case, I fully enjoyed the run—leaping and grinning all the way down! I think Hélène and Pablo were somewhat surprised…..not Candice, she was right behind me! More Dune-y info?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_of_Pyla

Arcachon is a lovely town on the coast (and right near the Dune) that became a popular place for sick rich people to go to get better. Many people sent their sick children there as well and there are loads of fancy houses that were used as “hospitals” for those people. It looks different than many towns around here because it has so many separate houses (or mansions) and not so many of the apartments/houses that share walls.

We walked around the downtown (and Hélène bought us a snack of a Bordeaux region specialty—a canelé, which has a custard-y center and a caramelized outside…mmm!) and saw the beautiful colors of the sunset over the ocean!

Photo: Canelés

Photo: Sunset in Arcachon

Then we headed back to Tyrosse (about 2 hours) and, not surprisingly, Pablo, Candice, and I all fell asleep for most of the ride!

Photo: Sunset as we were driving home

We were all really appreciative to Hélène for such a fun day! It isn’t possible to take a train to the Dune, so it’s likely that we wouldn’t have been able to visit there if not for her! And she’s so much fun!!

Tonight Candice and I sat by the fire drinking tea to warm up. Then we had dinner and just hung out before heading to bed somewhat earlier than normal!

If you're interested, check out Candice's blog! She has much nicer quality pictures! :P http://candoosa.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/bordeaux-dune-de-pilat-arcachon-et-des-beaux-souvenirs/

Today I got a package of Swiss chocolates from Uncle Jim and Aunt Heidi! YUM!