Mad Dogs and...!

Brantôme is a small tourist town in central France (think Padstow but without the sea!). Armed with Nicky’s handwritten notes copied from the Lonely Planet “Best Day Walks” guidebook, we set off on a 10km loop.

With temperatures climbing towards the high thirties we decided to head for the coast in search of cooler weather, ending up for a night not far from Cazaux Lake near Arcachon. Another incoming heatwave promised to nudge into the 40s, so we elected to leave at 7am the following morning and head south along the Atlantic coast. Little did we know that two days after we left, the surrounding area would be evacuated due to horrific forest fires.

Further along the coast, Nicky found a municipal campsite at Saint-Julien-en-Born, which provided a courtesy bus to the beach. The next day we spent a few hours body surfing in the mighty Bay of Biscay.

With the heatwave forecast to last longer, we enquired about staying more than two days, but the campsite was almost fully booked for the Bastille Day bank holiday. Fortunately, Angelique, the extremely helpful campsite manager, managed to find us a space – meaning we spent one memorable night literally parked in a sandpit pitch right next to the toilet block...