Visiting the Southwest coast of France

Here is an article which has me interested in the Gascony region. It's more or less adjacent to the Dordogne area so it may be worth including.

Have you called the office to see just how down the wait list you are?

Thanks to FastEddie, for an excellent article.

If you decide on Arcachon, you can take a boat trip around the basin; and you can visit/climb the Dune du Pilat, the largest sand dune in Europe. You can eat great seafood. When we were there, quite a few years ago, we were able to take a walking tour through the part of town developed around 1900, which is full of vacation mansions, built in many different, often whimsical styles. This year, when we stopped there for lunch, on our way to the Bordeaux airport, I had the impression that Arcachon has undergone a lot of development, as industry has moved outwards from Bordeaux and people who work in the city have moved outward to new housing.
It would be easy to spend a few days in and around Arcachon before heading to the Dordogne.

Go to Gascony if you have a few days. The article FastEddie posted describes the area very well. I was in Condom, Gers, last weekend. The cathedral is worth a visit as are Fources and Laressingle. D'Artagnan of the Three Musketeers fame is supposed to be from the area, and he is a running theme throughout the area.
The food was great, and I swear the duck I had for dinner is the same as the one in the article.

I wasn't impressed with Arcachon at all. I was there before the wine festival in Bordeaux last June, so a little before the "season". The beaches immediately south of there, however, are wide stretches of soft sand. I camped at a campground maybe 30 miles south of Arcachon, 20 km south of the big sand dune, Dune du Pilat. It was open but still early season for them. If you go the other direction, north of Arcachon, there are beaches, forests and wine. South it's mostly scattered beach towns that cater to the summer visitors with forests and lakes inland.

I visited Languedoc, Lot and Dordogne before heading up to the coast and then Bordeaux. My favorite was Languedoc. Dordogne was my least favorite only because it was a front in the 100 years war so most of the towns are rebuilt post war. In Lot and Languedoc, the villages are much older and IMO more interesting.

We stayed with friends in Cahors, and explored Domme, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, and La Roque Gageac. These villages were so beautiful and historic. They're members of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association. I'd highly recommend each of those places. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie was especially cool as we hiked along the Lot River to get to the village.

Once we bid our friends au revoir, we took the Ouibus to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the Basque coast near the Spain border. This was a beautiful seaside resort town, and our family really enjoyed staying here for three nights. The beach was gorgeous, we ate wonderful seafood, and really enjoyed the market. It wasn't very crowded when we visited these places in late June. After that, we went to San Sebastian, and then Barcelona, then home.

I'd recommend all of these places...

Laurie

If you are interested in a beach holiday you can stay near the coast between Arcachon and Bayonne. Dune du Pilat is nice but I can’t remember Arcachon as an outstanding place to visit, besides the many seafood restaurants. My idea is to avoid the huge man-made Landes forest, a bit boring and as far as know offers not so much worth sightseeing. Interesting places like those already mentioned are more inland and outside the forest.

Visiting the Médoc region along the westbank of the Gironde estuary was way more interesting.