Bordeaux to Lacanau Ocean and back to Bordeaux
Today is the completion of one of the goals of our trip - to cycle from coast to coast. We left the Mediterranean Sea at Gruissan and today we were going to the Atlantic coast beach resort of Lacanau Ocean. By the time we got back our mileage cycled will have reached just under 600 miles. To put that in perspective it is roughly the same as the straight line distance from Lands End to John O'Groats.
We got up very early for this very long ride, but despite the alarm going off at 6:30am it was 8:15am by the time we set off. Today was Bastille day, a public holiday that the French take very seriously so we hoped to avoid the rush to the seaside by starting early. We had 9 miles to go on normal roads although they all had cycle paths and then we would join the Bordeaux to Lacanau Ocean cycle path. The path follows the route of an old railway line and is mostly flat and straight, it has an excellent surface, road signs, give ways and even traffic islands - all for bikes. The roads we used to get to the cycle path were quiet but when we joined the path, the road to the coast that runs next to the path in places was very, very busy. As it got later the cycle path also got busy, at first mostly with lycra clad middle aged people on racing bikes some no doubt on there way back from already having cycled to the coast and back, later on it was mainly leisure cyclists and families. There were also people on Rollerblades going as fast as the bikes.
Thanks to the good path and it still being cool we made good progress and didn't take a break until Salaunes where we sat on a bench and watched all the bikes heading to the coast. The bike path although excellent to ride on was was not very direct and after the next town of St. Helene it heads off in an arc away from our destination before turning back at Saimus. Although indirect this path allowed us to travel at speed and out of the way of any cars although there was still some risk from the amount of cyclists on the path. For our return journey the plan was to cut a big corner off by using the road if it was not too dangerous and busy. The temperature did rise as midday approached but compared with some of the recent days it was much cooler and hovered around 30 degrees, very hot but just about bearable.
We were heading for "Lacanau Ocean" but first we came to town of "Lacanau" without the "Ocean" although it did have a huge lake, like an inland sea complete with marinas, beaches and boardwalks. Gill thought we had made it to our goal so when I disappointed her with the news that we still had 8 miles to go we decided to stop for another break. Initially we went to a very busy boulangerie and got a large bottle of chilled coke and a loaf of bread that was so hard and pointy that could have been used as a lethal weapon. Unimpressed by the thought of broken teeth I remembered from a previous visit here where there was a snack bar/pizza shop not far away. We paid it a visit and had overpriced and disappointing Panini's and cans of coke. The only good point was that it had some tables and chairs in the shade outside which we stayed on for some time - helped by us refilling our coke cans with the bottle from the boulangerie when the snack bar proprietress wasn't looking (she resembled Amanda Knox).
Refreshed again we carried on towards the coast which included a few small hills that seemed to go unnoticed by Gill thanks to the refreshment..... Approaching Lacanau Ocean the cycle path ran alongside the road which was jam packed with cars queuing to get into the resort. When we reached the very busy seaside resort of Lacanau Ocean, including stops it had taken us 5 hours. By now we were totally shattered and instead of rushing to the seafront we had another break in the shade on some grass. Despite it being really busy with people walking past just a few feet away we both ended up going to sleep! After about an hour we finally made our way the last few hundred meters to the seafront...
We had made it! We were now looking out over the Atlantic. In contrast to coastline of the Mediterranean that we had cycled along before heading north with its virtually empty beaches this place was packed, with the streets and the beaches full of people like in old 1970's postcards of Blackpool. There were bikes everywhere, parked 5 or 6 deep. We took some photos to prove we really had done it then after a look around the town and a restock of drink from a supermarket we started our return trip. We would have bought some ice creams but this supermarket like several others we had been to, had sold out of them!
I had planned an alternative route back using the road where the cycle path took the more scenic route but the road was so busy it had put us off using it but on the way out of Lacanau Ocean I decided we should join it for a short distance to avoid having to go around the lake again. We were soon in the Lacanau "without the ocean" where we stopped again at the same Boulangerie as earlier for another drink and some ice creams. Earlier this place had been packed but we were now the only people there, so we're able to sit on the café tables outside watching the world go by. This extra stop had me thinking (always risky) and I suggested to Gill that we use the main road to cut a chunk out of our return journey. She agreed so we set off and joined the main road which was busy but had a hard shoulder to cycle on. It was unpleasant compared to the cycle path but this encouraged us to cycle quickly so we sped along stopping every so often, when we could find a shady tree to rest under. We made it back to St. Helene and then on to Salaunes much faster than earlier and after a few hours we were back where we had joined the bike path that morning. As today was Sunday and Bastille day as well, we realised finding somewhere to eat near our hotel was going to be difficult so we carried on along the Bordeaux to Lacanau bike path into St. Medard where we turned off onto another cycle path that took us right to a McDonald's (consistent!) where we recovered from the ride. We had got back much faster than we expected .....in less than 4 hours. From the McDonald's it was just a short few miles to our hotel where the effects of cycling over 70 miles really hit us, we were very, very tired but proud that we had done it.
Total Distance Cycled 70.4 miles.
