Our Blog - Valentines Day trip 2024 - Biscarrosse Plage and Bordeaux, France

A short trip for Valentines Day this year that wasn't too far from home. We headed to the beach on Tuesday, but unlike our last trip (which went to the Mediterranean), this time we headed to the Atlantic coast. We were staying in next to a lake in the town of Biscarrosse but stopped at the beach on the way.

An interesting note about Biscarrosse ... it is actually DOUBLE the size of Paris (over 19,000 hectares) but separated into 3 areas: Biscarrosse-Bourg (the commercial center), Biscarrosse-Plage (as you can guess, the seaside resort), and Biscarrosse-Lac (basically only homes and a golf course around 2 lakes). In between these "centers" is lots and lots of forests! You would almost consider these 3 different towns, in actuality.

So here we made our stop and basically walked down the firewall on the border between the Gironde department and the Landes department. Then we had to climb over this dune to get to the beach. I must admit, this was a much SMALLER dune than the Dune du Pilat that we hiked up on our trip to Arcachon. Lucy would run up the dune and then look back, waiting for us slow people, and then run back to check on us, before heading up the dune again.

A picture of Lucy on the beach, where she had a great time running, digging, and playing with the frisbee. Thank goodness we caught it at low tide! And then Lucy after ... a tired little pup, napping at the apartment that we had rented.

Then .. Happy Valentines Day! We did another walk on the beach at Biscarosse-Plage, although this one was a bit tougher. There have been lots of storms, which has eroded the dunes along Biscarosse-Plage and they were closed while we were there for a "mechanical sediment transfer" operation, where they were moving sand from different places to shore up the dunes. Luckily for us, the North end of the town beaches were open and we could head down for another bit of Lucy-beach-time.

We then headed to Bordeaux, where we were staying overnight and having a special Valentines Day dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant. On the outskirts of town, we stopped by the Chateau of Thouars. The chateau itself isn't open to the public but it had a nice park where we could throw the ball for Lucy. The Château de Thouars is the oldest building in Talence, which is a suburb of Bordeaux. It was renowned for being one of the most beautiful strongholds in the region, before being pillaged during the French Revolution and then requisitioned by the German command during the Second World War. When the original castle was built, in the 13th century, it was in the middle of a forest. Little by little, the castle was enlarged and changed to a magnificent palace that could host the members of the royal family when they passed through town in the 1500's. What we see today comes from the 1800's, when it was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style.

We then got check into our B&B and relaxed until time for dinner. We didn't do anything tourist-y, as we had been to Bordeaux before and this was just a stop-over for a special dinner. Just around the corner from our B&B were 2 things of note. The first is a HUGE public park that also houses an arboretum, a library and the Natural History Museum. It was created in 1746 and is over 25 acres, right in the middle of the city.

The other is the Palais Gallien, the remains of a 1st-or-2nd century Roman amphitheater (dating based on ceramics that were found there). According to what I could find, this is the only visible remains of the ancient Roman city here.

Then after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast, we headed back to Toulouse, stopping the little town of Bazas and its Cathedral on the way.