France – Vieux-Boucau-les-Bains (En)
Vieux-Boucau is in Las Landes and is the place most frequented by Basques. The town has a lake with access to the sea, shops, bars and restaurants, and a beach where they come to surf with fine dunes.
Where to stay
We stayed at Camping Municipal Les Sableres (43.792999, -1.40622 lat, long) 15 minutes walking to the town and lake and next to the fine dune beach. The facilities are good, showers with hot water and pressure but the toilets do not have seats or paper. The washing dishes area is good with hot water and the plots are big. We paid 19 euros per day, be aware that they charge 1 euro per day per dog. There is a door in the campsite to the beach, where you will find a minimarket and a pretty good local bar. We met our neighbours, a nice English couple, Trudy and Slin, with whom we exchanged information about our travels and had a great time. We exchanged phone numbers and we hope to see them again in Spain or Germany next year!
What to see
We went walking with Asha to the town and the first thing we saw was a street market selling all kinds of local products, such as pate, cheese, etc. Then we saw the town hall and the Church of St. Clement which has 23 paintings that embellish its ceiling which date from 1950 although they were restored in 2005. The first five frescoes, those closest to the entrance, represent scenes from the Old Testament, while the rest are from the New Testament.
The most atmospheric area is the avenue that leads to the lake, where there is a small channelled river crossed by small wooden bridges, and a good number of clothing stores, bars and other businesses. At the end of the avenue, you reach the lake, where there are a series of restaurants, a beach and a beautiful promenade with very beautiful views. We decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants that had a daily menu and where the waitress spoke Spanish. We decided to share the first courses, garlic prawns and grilled camembert with potatoes. Both are very good. For the main course I had sea bass with mashed potatoes and vegetables, and Ben fillet mignon (it was pork which was delicious) with fries and a mushroom sauce. All delicious for 16 euros each.
Another day in the afternoon we went to see the beach at sunset and decided to have dinner at the local bar called ChezCoco. I drank a cocktail called Butterfly, which was rum with mango juice and passion fruit juice, and Ben had a beer. We ordered the mussels to follow Slin’s advice, who told us they were the best he had eaten in France. The mussels are grilled, and it is true that they were delicious, according to Ben the best so far and he is going to try to cook them that way, we accompanied them with padrón peppers, where several were spicy!
And we say goodbye to France, since tomorrow we are leaving for Spain, first stop is Pamplona famous for the San Fermines (running the bulls), which you can see in the next post!
