It’s been a plage -ure
Oh, we do love to be by the seaside – and especially if it’s in France, says MARI JONES
IT PROUDLY boasts that it was France’s first seaside resort – and each summer turns the clock back to recreate the early days of sea bathing. Little wonder that the Soulac 1900 festival, which includes an old-style market, shows and fancy dress, helps Soulac-sur-Mer to live up to its name.
Because, all year round, there are miles and miles of almost white sandy beaches as far as the eye can see.
This quaint little town on the Bay of Biscay has a raft of activities to suit all ages, all within close proximity to each other, such as paddle boarding, horse-riding and motocross.
Close to 100 miles of cycling tracks run south down the Médoc coast to Les Landes, taking in stunning beaches, lakes, château vineyards and fragrant pine forests that stretch for miles.
Soulac, on the northern tip of the Médoc, where the Gironde Estuary meets the Atlantic Ocean on the Côte d’Argent, is pretty with its candy-coloured buildings, with plenty of chic little seafood restaurants lining the Promenade.
We feasted on Moules Marinière with French fries for €12, and a crisp glass of Sauvignion blanc for €3.50.
But my favourite spot in the town was the old covered market, open daily in the centre. Here, you’ll find locally caught fish along with a vast range of wine from the nearby Bordeaux region, cheese, creamy salted butter from Brittany, locally grown cherries, strawberries, home-made jams and, of course, an excellent boulangiere.
The beach is fabulous and the body boarding wonderful, but be careful with younger children because there is a strong riptide.
The Médoc area is great for long sandy beaches and surf or body boarding.
We mostly stayed local as it’s so good for cycling but did venture to Lacaneau Ocean and Hourtin Plage, both really cool places.
Maibuisson, on the southern part of Hourtin Lac, is also worth an afternoon, with still, warm shallow waters for the kids to play in.
If you tire of the beach, the beautiful city of Bordeaux is a two-hour drive away, or you can journey south across the estuary from close by Royan.
To slice off a large chunk of journey time take the Verdon-Royan Ferry which costs around €23 for a car, and children go free. It takes 15 minutes, but just make sure you’re there 30 minutes before departure.
We stayed at Siblu’s Domaine de Soulac. It was a bit of a gruelling trip by car but well worth the effort.
The site is a lot smaller than other Siblu sites, and also the newest in its stable. We’d chosen Domain de Soulac because it is a smaller park and was our first experience of mobile home holidays in France.
We overlooked fields, our outside space was good, and the mobile home itself was brand new and spotless.
There was also plenty of privacy. As the mobile homes are privately owned, shrubs have been grown around them and never once did we feel our neighbours were watching what we had on our baguettes in the morning.
The covered outside area also delivers the magic of outdoor living: food always seems to taste better, and you can have that nightcap under the stars.
We stayed out of season in May so it was very quiet, but there was still plenty to keep the children occupied including its outdoor pool, which always has at least two lifeguards on duty – there were five when we were there – and is the undoubted star of the show, with three water slides.
Food at the site restaurant was decent and reasonably priced, and there’s a little shop selling essentials, plus a Lidl or Carrefour a
few minutes’ drive away.
The bar-restaurant is relaxed, serves great pizzas, and overlooks the pool. There’s also a kids’ club and tennis courts.
My youngsters didn’t join in the club much – most of the holidaymakers were French, and although the staff were very friendly, there wasn’t much English spoken.
There’s also a games room, activity camps, mini-golf, a climbing wall, trampolining, and water aerobics with a very enthusiastic Tom Cruise lookalike. But a big hit with us was hiring bikes on the site and cycling on a pine-covered bike path into La Palmyre.
A holiday in the area isn’t complete without a visit to Zoo La Palmyre, which is considered to be one of France’s best.
Expect to get up close to flamingos, giraffes, bats, tigers, lions, elephants, hippos, sealions,
parrots and even polar bears. The highlight was undoubtedly the recently built chimp house, which also housed apes and orangutans.
A day can be easily spent here and it was excellent value at €17 for adults and €13 for kids.
Further afield, Saint Palais-sur-Mer is pretty, and a day trip to Il de Ré – a small island off La Rochelle – is a must.
This chic island beloved by Parisians was around an hour and a half’s drive away from the site. A Parisian who had recently retired to the island proudly told us that they have just as much sun as the Cote d’Azur, but there’s none of the ‘brashness’.
“We have bikes rather than Ferraris” she sniffed.
Think enormous sandy beaches, stunning old ports and a landscape of salt plains and sun-drenched villages.
The main town, St-Martin-de-Ré, is a picture postcard pretty 17th-century port partly enclosed by fortifications.
The harbour is overlooked by many fish restaurants, with terraces spilling on to the cobbled streets.
We opted for a cheaper backstreet bistro that couldn’t have looked quainter if it tried.
We were sitting next to a group of ladies who I spotted later running chic shops down at the harbour, and a couple of workmen still in their overalls enjoying the three-course fixed price lunch, including a very fragrant dish of black truffle risotto.
The port’s windy lanes are filled to the brim with smart little shops, and dinky houses with colourful shutters whose gardens were filled with hollyhocks.
The port of La Flotte was also charming, with a host of yachts and restaurants, galleries and smart boutiques.
Nearby La Rochelle is also worth a visit, and its world-class aquarium has 12,000 animals of 600 different species, and is one of the top 10 attractions in France.
It was hard to leave Bonne Anse Plage with its gorgeous pool and pine forest, but the long journey back to the UK was somewhat tempered by a trip on Brittany ferries from Caen to Portsmouth.
Our cabin was spotlessly clean, with a great window, and there were plenty of towels for the shower, but the real highlight was dining in the main restaurant. What a treat it was, incredible value, and easily one of the best meals we had all holiday.
Au revoir Soulac – literally, goodbye until we meet again.