I didn’t really know what to expect from this holiday. We had spent a few days in Biarritz some years ago and on other holidays had driven over the western Pyrenees on our way to Spain and beyond. We’ve gone to the part of them beloved by the Tour de France organisers, the legendary cols of Tourmalet and Soulor but in the winter to do raquette walking and had thought it would be interesting to visit in warmer weather.

We took the suggested route via Bordeaux but got bored driving through Les Landes, a lovely area but flat and forested for kilometer after kilometer if driving straight through it. A decision was taken we’d go home via Toulouse!

Once we left the autoroute close to Bayonne we were straight onto narrow country roads and, true to form, the GPS got lost as soon as it encountered a new roundabout. I had been looking at the area on Google maps to get ideas for places to visit so a few village names were familiar so I just followed my nose and any familiar name on a signpost! Amazingly, we did eventually arrive at Sare, the plus beau village close to the camp site and then the site itself.

The welcome was warm from the lady in charge who set off to walk us to our chalet where she showed us around, presented us with a classic gateau basque, gave us the key and told us there was an apero within the hour by the acceuil, just make sure to bring a glass each, any paperwork could be sorted tomorrow. So we emptied the car into our home for the next week, found our glasses and went off to meet our hosts.

The apero was well attended and we were soon chatting with our fellow holidaymakers while our host and his son kept all our glasses topped up from big jugs of what suspiciously looked like the lethal ‘ponch’ beloved of French friends to help a party along!

After several glasses we took our leave and headed back to our chalet for soup and sleep!