June 9, 2025
Our final morning in Biarritz before a long day in the car. Kayleen snuck out early to walk to the beach and along the ocean. She got some good photos of a lot of the sites we saw during our trip but free of people. No one seems to be up and out before 8AM.
We really enjoyed our time in Biarritz. We could walk everywhere and the city had everything we could have wanted. Getting the kids in surf lessons was great and something we wanted to do since we knew we would be coming here.
It took a bit to pack up, we really spread out on week long stops, but at least we were not doing an airport cram packing. We loaded up the car and prepared to start our long drive. The car we have here is a bit bigger then past ones so we can fit everything in the trunk which I thought would be nice but was wrong…
We stopped for lunch, after about 1.5 hours of driving, in a small town at a restaurant called Little Italy. The hope of a pizza for an easy lunch for the boys was a success with a 9 out of 10 score from them. It was good pizza and Kayleen and I enjoyed it as well. When paying inside I told the guy making the pizzas we though they were very good and we live in New York. It was obvious he was extremely pleased to hear such a compliment.
The little town we were in had a lot of houses with orange, looked like terracotta, ceramic roofs. Ollie declared that “I bet we’ll see lots of houses like this in China.” Maybe one of his movies or cartoons shows Chinese buildings with that color roof?
Before starting the next leg of the drive I took one of the bags out of the trunk to put in the backseat. I had not realized how important having a barrier between the boys was, also a good spot to lay their heads.
Next we drove another 40 minutes to the Grande Dune du Pilat. It is the largest sand dune in Europe and located in the Arcachon Bay area. We were not really sure what it would be like but figured it would be a good way to break up the drive.
We parked and followed the crowd towards the dune. There were a few shops before the uphill walk started so we stopped to grab some ice cream cones. It was fancy where you picked a fruit and it was mixed with the ice cream as it was squeezed into the cone. The order was 3 raspberry and 1 strawberry which were all quite good.
The walk wasn’t that long, nothing compared to some of the hikes we have done. First it was a wide sandy path with a lot of tree cover which eventually opened to the dune. There was the option of going straight up the sand or using the steps that had been built. We opted for the most common option of steps up and sand on the way down. We made it to the top without much issue and enjoyed the view. The dune is massive, nothing compared to the sights in the Sahara, but by far the most sand I have ever seen near the ocean. There was a big sandbar out in the water that gave protection for boats to pull up and spend the day playing on the beach and in the water which seemed like a lot of fun.
We all made it down the dune without any falls. I had kept my shoes mostly sand free until the way down, which by the end they were filled to the top with sand. I waited till we were at the car to dump out a nice sized pile from each.
We continued our drive which was another ~4 hours to Angers. There were a few bathroom breaks along the way with the most notable being at a McDonald’s. We let the boys run in the play area for a while which they loved. Both Kayleen and I where thrilled there was no ball pit. Instead there just a lot of climbing tunnels. After 10 minutes of running wild we escaped with no major injuries just a few bumped heads. We continued our drive with the boys enjoying their happy meals.
We arrive in Angers around 9PM, which still looks like the middle of the day outside. Our house is on a small cobblestone road and nearly touching Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers. It was the only residential house on the road. The house had a tiny attached garage but the road was under construction so we had to go around the church and through it’s tiny parking lot to get right in front of our house.
Kayleen guided me into the garage and the car just squeezed in with a few inches on each side. I was very relieved to not have to go find somewhere else to put it.
The boys discovered a cabinet with some games they were happy to mess around with. I went to the only little corner store that was still open to grab some food for the morning. Then it was off to bed for everyone.
