FRANCE 2013: ARCACHON

In my mind there are Beach People and for the record I’m not one of them. Beach People thrive on finding a spot amongst hordes of other sun, sea and sand worshippers and laying out between swims like seals basking in the sunshine. They have mastered the knack of dressing and undressing under a multicoloured towel slightly larger than a facecloth, while standing on one leg and watching the world around them, meerkat style.

The very word ‘holiday’ can be found in their personal dictionary under ‘seaside’ and they

eat food surrounded by sand and without complaint for God’s sake! The only thing I like about being on the coast is the freshness of the sea air and you can get that in a harbour town, so I’m afraid a trip to the seaside is never going to appear on my Things To Do On Holiday list.

The Ban Chéile* on the other hand, while not being a real Beach Person, likes to walk along the seashore and indulge in the odd salty swim and so we made our way to Arcachon on the Aquitaine coast to fulfil the obligatory ‘holiday trip to the seaside’. Truth be told it was my idea because we had

passed through the outskirts of Arcachon on our way up from Biarritz a couple of years ago and I liked the look of the place and made a mental note to check it out if the opportunity arose.

The town and seafront were peppered with a myriad of little restaurants all serving an equally mixed fair and at 

not too exorbitant prices. People sat and ate or sipped espressos while watching the world go by or reading the paper. Very French and without the underlying air of herding and handling tired and tantrum riddled children seaside towns are plagued by during the peak summer months.

We did some promenading ourselves and browsed through some of the shops – lots of them aimed at surfers and swimmers of course and many selling good old seaside souvenirs. All told it was a good experience and if I had to spend some time on the beachfront Arcachon would definitely be the place for me. If I had to that is!

* Ban-Cheile means Wife/Spouse/Life Partner in the Irish Language. A literal translation would be “woman I’m together with” or thereabouts. SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed 🙂