The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
For a first morning in Cap Ferret, watching the sun come up over the empty sands of Plage des Pastourelles on Arcachon Bay sets the bar high. It’s only a short stumble to the beach at Camping Pastourelles, where I’ve pitched up with my cute camper van. For someone who doesn’t really do camping, I seem to have picked the perfect spot to try out life in the great outdoors.
On the long, thin Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s western coast near Bordeaux , I’ve got the calm, lagoon-like waters of Arcachon Bay on one side and Atlantic breakers on the other. Pine forests and cycle tracks fill the interior, and one lovely village after another clings to the edges of the bay — almost all with a quartier ostréicole where the oysters that fill Arcachon Bay are farmed, sold and eaten at waterside shacks that take rustic seaside chic to a new level.
Go south to the village of Cap Ferret itself and the rustic becomes a little smoother. Cap Ferret is what happens when you take a bit of Ile de Ré, add a dash of Deauville, throw in some red-and-white Basque Country houses and envelop everything in the soothing scent of sun-baked pine.
Pastourelles is a little further north in the village of Claouey, which maintains the understated elegance of the peninsula (and has a car showroom that sells nothing but vintage Porsches). I head to the port where seaside shacks offer oysters, whelks and prawns at astonishingly affordable prices. A dozen oysters for €11? Yes, please, especially at a waterside table at Chez TT or A la Bonne Franquette.
As it’s mid-September, the peninsula’s food markets are beginning to wind down — the only disadvantage, as far as I can see, of not coming in July or August. I catch the tail end of Claouey’s superb market, picking up padron peppers and a succulent roast chicken. A man sets up a stall selling earthy cèpes, which go into an omelette. A dozen takeaway oysters from A la Bonne Franquette (a bargain at €5.50) make another simple yet decadent meal.
Eating well here without spending a fortune is not a problem, and cooking and eating al fresco under pine trees in balmy weather is a joy. My camper van, a converted Fiat Ducato courtesy of Indie Campers, comes with a kitchen sink and a mini-fridge. I snuggle into one of the two double bunk beds, feeling nicely cocooned. This camping lark is beginning to make sense.
Using a fold-up bike, I set out on the cycle tracks that crisscross the peninsula, ending up in a peaceful no-man’s-land between two big Atlantic beaches, Truc Vert and Grand-Cohot. There’s hardly a soul around to enjoy the surprisingly warm water.
I check out some of the other villages, drawn to their individual quartiers ostréicoles. L’Herbe wins the top prize for being the most charming — its higgledy-piggledy collection of wooden fishermen’s cottages on short stilts, squeezed into a maze of flower-filled alleyways a few feet wide, is a delight to get lost in. It’s not hard to find the seaside shacks, though, and Chez Guillaume makes a satisfying spot for oysters and rosé. Back in Claouey, I dust off the sand and make myself presentable for dinner at stylish Le Port d’Attache. Smart as the place is, it’s as easy-going as the rest of the peninsula. A candlelit terrace is the ideal backdrop to beautifully buttery bream and braised fennel. Afterwards, the temptation for a moonlit walk on Pastourelles beach is too strong to resist.
In a break from my decidedly pleasant routine of cycling, swimming, eating oysters and falling under Cap Ferret’s spell, I take a boat from the Bélisaire jetty for the 30-minute crossing to Arcachon on the southern side of the bay. Although its population is less than 11,000 it seems huge in comparison, with all the liveliness you would expect of a Victorian seaside town. Broad sandy beaches surround the jetty, and its promenade is lined with restaurants (Chez Pierre being among the best). I make my way past elegant 19th-century buildings and less edifying modern monstrosities to roam around its food market, which is worth the trip alone.
On the boat journey, I can see the mind-bogglingly enormous Dune du Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune, just south of Arcachon. From this distance it’s incredible enough, and it’s also going to be my next temporary home. I pack up the camper van and head around the bay to Panorama du Pyla Yelloh Village, which has the great geographical luck to be in a pine forest on the dune’s southern edge. Here the Arguin sandbank tames the Atlantic’s waves and warms up the waters.
It seems otherworldly, this gargantuan mountain of sand sprinkled with paragliders launching themselves towards the sea. Sunset on the dune becomes an evening ritual, glass of rosé in hand as the sky glows. It’s the last pine-scented gasp of the summer, and all the sweeter for it.
Details: Cap Ferret
Indie Campers (indiecampers.com) has Active Plus camper vans to hire from Bordeaux airport, from €59 a day. Camping Pastourelles (campingpastourelles.fr) and Panorama du Pyla Yelloh Village (yellohvillage.fr) have pitches from €20 a day. EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies to Bordeaux from Gatwick, Luton and Southend from £26 one-way.
