Enjoying the Coast of France -- No, not that one

When people think about the French coast, everyone tends to think about the French Riviera, and the Med.

Whereas my french family has a fondness for the area around Les Sables d'Olonne - a French town on the Atlantic perhaps best known as the start of the Vendée Globe, a frankly unhinged sailing competition that is run from the city every four years.

It's the sort of thing you read a little about and then find yourself surprised that it's only killed one person during the running of it.  (It's only really been running since the 90s though, give it time).

I had visited this area when I was a wee lad, around 1997, and it was really neat to be back and see the place through eyes that have seen a great many things since then.

 It's still a beautiful city.  Built up via a seawall and backfill, the tide is long and even and essentially consumes the beach once a day -- I remember being here as a kid and how we'd all create spaces down near the water, and then when the tide started to turn some people would pack up, but lots of people would just move their camp of chairs and shade and towels a quarter of the way up the beach and get in another hour, repeating this two or three times until there was just a thin line of camps up against the wall, the water impatiently reaching forward to lap against the rocks, and the sun was setting.

 

The wall provides an excellent boardwalk as well.  The crowds haven't really arrived for the summer yet, if it's anything like the 90s, in July that beach will be FULL of beachgoers, from wall to water.

 

I was there to visit my cousin, Baptiste, and his husband Hugh, who I hadn't seen since even earlier, back when Baptiste came to visit my family in the states somewhere in 1995 or 1996.  They live and work in Algers but have a small home they adore in the countryside near the ocean and regularly come out here for the weekends.  I was lucky enough to be able to meet them in the city and spend a couple of days with them, they were fantastic hosts. 

 

(more on the food and their delightfully weird cats in the next entry)

My delightful cousins who picked me up from the train station and showed me around the region.

 Another thing (which I could barely remember) about Les Sable d'Olonne was that they have a couple of side streets that a local artist meticulously decorates with shells.

Some of the current designs were truly delightful.  

I think this Dracula with his flock of bats was my favorite.

Baptiste and Hugh were excellent hosts -- they walked me around town, we bought a few cheeses (because they only had 4 at the house already -- I love it here) and also a truly excellent selection of very nice chocolates (be still my heart).  The next day we explored the surrounding smaller towns on the Atlantic.  It was a lovely day of little seaside towns full of cute shops and first-tourists-of-the-season, with warm, sunny skies overhead. They pointed out seaside hotels built in the styles of Tunisia and North Africa, and we got award winning ice cream, and overall it was just the sort of rambling, pleasant visit with family you always hope you'll get when you show up at the home of blood relative and are never quite sure you'll get.

 I'm a very lucky man indeed.