Tapp's Travels

Dax is a centre of thermal baths.  They advertise cures for all sorts of rheumatic conditions, but they seem to be protracted affairs lasting weeks and there’s a lot of hot mud involved.  While a swim in nice clear, warm water appeals, I’m going to skip the mucky mud.  I think steroids are a lot less messy!

We elected to stay out of town on a tiny rural property.   A quick email to check availability, followed by a conversation with an answerphone yielded no response.  It transpired that the proprietors, (mother and daughter, Edith and Sylvie) spoke no English at all.  We pitched up and found we were basically alone in their front garden.

We arrived for a couple of days, but stayed for a week.  We found central Dax was basically a one street shopping zone featuring a Galleries Lafayette …

…  with a magnificent stairwell complete with mirrors and huge framed murals.   I’m  pretty sure the store sold lots of fancy clothes, but I didn’t really notice them!

The street was also home to a couple of dress shops, a gelateria, a few restaurant/cafe/bars and, as they do in France, a cathedral.

All other retail outlets seemed to be occupied by opticians.  There are dozens of them (and Dax is not alone in this).  Where, at home, we have heaps of estate agents and charity shops, here they pander to eyeware fetishists!  Glenda is seriously thinking about taking some French frames home with a view to talking Specsavers into fitting them with her lens.  I say, good luck to that idea!

We found some lovely restaurants nearby including the Louisiana Cafe.  A joint run by a fan of deep south USA music and decor.  Seemed rather out of place in rural Llandes  – but popular enough that booking was essential – especially on music nights.  We tried to get in to Bernie and Vincent’s place in Oeyreluy.  Apparently, renowned for their posh cuisine.  Sadly, they were too renowned.  Full all week – and for the foreseeable future.  You need your parents to make a booking for you before you are born to be certain of lunch here!  But we did find other places for which it was worth putting on respectable clothes.  Like Le P’tit Josse and the Aberge de Pas de Vent.

The local river is the Adour.  A little known waterway (well little known by us, anyway) which rises in the Pyrenees and meets the sea near Bayonne, just north of Biarritz.  Where we found it, there was an access road for “riverains” (local residents) which runs on the top of the flood prevention levee.  It follows the river for miles – and so did we.  Excellent walking.  It would have been even better on bikes!

They just need to install more seats along the way!

We were getting pretty relaxed by this time, but we should keep moving north towards Roscoff.  So, what did we do?  We headed East (and only very slightly north) to.Gondrin near the attractively named town of Condom.  We had found a small rural (again) campsite that sounded too good to be true.  Camping La Brouquère.

To find out if it was indeed “too good to be true” or our “next disaster waiting to happen”, you will have to wait for the next thrilling episode!