Dax & Cavignac - 16 & 17 October 2024

16.10 - France - Dax, Aquitaine

I know Aires are supposed to be a safer place to sleep the night - but really! The overhead lights in San Sebastián last night were ridiculous - totally lit up inside unless all the blinds were shut - which meant no fresh air - didn’t sleep well ☹️

Didn’t water up, as a long queue. Tintin driving today. He’d said it might take about 3 hours to cover 70 miles - didn’t really believe him. Then it all came flooding back! You drive at either 30/50 km/h for about 2 hours with loads of roundabouts. It’s slow exiting Spain, but only because of volume of traffic and no dual carriageway. It’s totally a non-event changing country! 

Slow through Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bidart, Biarritz, Bayonne etc. Think last time we considered péage, but the same as this time - decided we weren’t in any real rush…

Took nearly 3 hours and we’re parked up in Dax - a spa destination with a population of about 21,000. We were here 4 November 2018 when it was raining and there were pink plastic flamingos in the thermal spring bath! And it was raining!

Today was due to be raining from about 1pm - once again took coats and umbrellas - didn’t rain and warm in the sunshine! Again temperature has been about 25° - not what was expected. 

Probably have similar photos from last time - of the bull ring and the bull statue, the cathedral etc. Don’t remember walking around the shops - paved and quite nice! 

The water in the thermal spa is really quite hot!

There are quite a lot of ‘art installations’ - graffiti! The young lad doing the Greek goddess was actually English. He only started doing it on Sunday, and was nursing a hangover today!

So being back in France - a visit to the boulangerie was in order. I had a Mille-feuille - dare I say it was a bit sickly? Serves me right for being a piggy! Tintin sensibly had a coffee eclair - €5.50. 

We’re definitely on our way home - using up food from the freezer - and made up my last batch of granola. 

17.10 - Cavignac (north of Bordeaux)

We had a thunderstorm last night - and then it hasn’t really stopped raining since. 

Once again, Tintin drew the short straw to service Dave in the rain this morning. 

Me driving today. About 2-1/2 hours. Paid €6.50 for a section of péage between Dax and Bordeaux (was €5.50 6 years ago!). I know you have to concentrate when driving - but today was probably the most sustained heavy rain I’ve driven in. Even needed the fastest wipers. Plus there were three or four lanes going around Bordeaux - and quite busy. There wasn’t a lot of conversation or singing along to the music!

We’re parked up in Cavignac. When there was a short break in the rain - went for a very quick walk. It’s at least 10° colder than yesterday - even colder than home! Fair to say - there’s not a lot here - but at least it’s a quiet park up, looking out over the fields and vines - and no overhead lighting!

Watched a film this afternoon, and might even watch another one this evening! We have enough data to download them from Amazon Prime. Think it was the Amazon Prime music which ate loads of our data when we first came away. 

Due to rain all day tomorrow, but hopefully not as heavy as this morning 🤞