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Any Port in a Storm :: Beyond the Breakwater :: Post Cards :: Quiet town in southwest France
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AuthorTopic: Quiet town in southwest France (Read 316 times)
bjd
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Quiet town in southwest France
« Thread Started on Apr 10, 2012, 6:56pm »		[Quote]
As a complete contrast to Bixa's colourful Mexican villages, I thought I'd make a thread about a small town in southwest France where we bought an apartment a year and a half ago.

While my husband was working knocking old tiles off the bathroom wall last November, I went for a walk. It was a warm sunny afternoon in late November. Since this town is not right on the Atlantic coast, there are tourists in summer but there is some life during the rest of the year. However, it doesn't really look like it on these pictures.

We just spent 4 days there and it looks quite different in spring, with everything green and blooming, but the weather was definitely nicer last November.

The main street with the church at the end.

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The street where there is a market every Monday:
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #1 on Apr 10, 2012, 7:02pm »		[Quote]
The movie theatre. They have built a newer cultural centre for theatre and concerts elsewhere.
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A youth centre, although the town mostly seems to invest in sports facilities.
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The post office
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The arena. There are "courses landaises", which are not bullfights like in Spain. These are more guys flapping capes at young bulls (called "vachettes" although they don't look like cows). The arena is used for other stuff too -- there is a 10K race that ends here, as well as other public activities.

[image]
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #2 on Apr 10, 2012, 7:09pm »		[Quote]
Typical old house, with a new apartment buidling beside.
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The library, which is quite well supplied but only open about 2 days a week.
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A renovated old house in what I suppose was typical of local architecture. Now a doctor's office.
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A restaurant selling not only crepes, which is quite good and you get a 3-course meal for 12 euros. The building in front is called an "halle". They are found all over the area, often used for covered markets, although not here.
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Another example of local architecture:
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A private house with a graffiti of Victor Hugo on the garage door.

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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #3 on Apr 10, 2012, 7:18pm »		[Quote]
The street leading down to the lake and a big park. They have this ridiculous mania for pruning plane trees into odd shapes. It does give a lot of shade in summer when it's hot, but looks strange when there are no leaves.

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A "lavoir", where women used to go wash laundry. There are several around the town.
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The lake, seen from the park in the evening
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And during the day
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The town is at one end of the lake. The building here is accommodation for groups who come to use the rowing facilities. This weekend there was a large group from Manchester University in England. When we went in March, there were young Germans from Hamburg.

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You can also rent sailboats, canoes and kayaks.

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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #4 on Apr 10, 2012, 7:23pm »		[Quote]
That Saturday afternoon, there was a skateboarding competition, but this truck is rather typical of the area. The painting on the back window is of Capbreton, about 10 km away.

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This guy was doing some demonstrations and impressing the little kids:

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And these were waiting to compete. You can see the lake right behind the rugby field (this is the southwest, after all!)

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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #5 on Apr 10, 2012, 7:31pm »		[Quote]
And 5 miles (8 km) down the road is the rest of the town, and the ocean. The buildings you see are apartments in Vieux Boucau, the next beach along the coast.

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Tangled fishing nets.

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These pictures are of fishermen, but you are more likely to see surfers at the beaches along this coast.
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lola
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #6 on Apr 10, 2012, 11:00pm »		[Quote]
So, near Biarritz and San Sebastian, then? How nice to have a place there. Thank you for this, bjd.

About the typical old house: I suppose the main entrance is up the stairs on the first floor. What do they use ground floor for? Maybe it's cooler for sleeping?

It looks as if the town has about anything you'd need. My ideal small French town has 2 bakeries, so the competition would spark even more excellence. I imagine the locals get used to the limited library hours.

Will you be surfing?
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mich64
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #7 on Apr 11, 2012, 12:19am »		[Quote]
A serene lake and the ocean, what a lovely area to spend leisurely time in. Lovely presentation bjd!
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #8 on Apr 11, 2012, 8:02am »		[Quote]
Lola, the place is 40 km north of Biarritz/Bayonne, so about another 40 to San Sebastian.

The town has more than 2 bakeries -- the normal population is about 8,000 so there are at least 5 that I have seen, plus at least 3 large supermarkets and several small food stores, as well as a large outdoor market once a week. Our place is right downtown, so I can pop over to a bakery in the morning to get fresh bread for breakfast.

No, I won't be surfing! Too old and not adventurous enough.
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kerouac2
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #9 on Apr 11, 2012, 11:16am »		[Quote]
Really nice, bjd. I've always felt that the French have a love-hate relationship with nature, because they really feel a need to dominate municipal trees. As you know, all over France there a thousands of those tortured yet forgiving trees that they prune like that about every 5 years. I'm sure that the green "tunnel" going to the park must be fabulous in the summer.

The lavoir is surprisingly large. Most of the ones I have seen only have room for about 3 or 4 women, er, I mean washers, to work at the same time.

I like the look of the ocean and the beaches in that part of France.
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #10 on Apr 11, 2012, 1:23pm »		[Quote]
On the way home on Monday we picked up a young hitch-hiker. He told us he was studying landscaping just down the road from where we live here. I asked whether they were still taught to prune trees like that and he said yes. It's to give the trees a specific form, although he agreed with me that the poor trees look as though they have stumps instead of branches.

I guess it's part of the French "formal garden mentality". I had hoped it was out of style, but apparently not.
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #11 on Apr 11, 2012, 1:26pm »		[Quote]
[image]
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nycgirl7664
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #12 on Apr 11, 2012, 1:34pm »		[Quote]
What a beautiful town. That last shot is dynamite!
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tod2
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #13 on Apr 11, 2012, 2:45pm »		[Quote]
Lovely photos bjd! This last one of the rolling surf is wonderful - I could have sworn the first two with fishermen were of a beach scene right here in South Africa. Even the buildings look the part :)
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Breeze
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #14 on Apr 11, 2012, 11:58pm »		[Quote]
Quiet, sunny, peaceful, with 5 boulangeries and a library. This is my kind of town.

When we find a library in France, we always stop in and look around and chat. It continues to surprise me that Danielle Steel is popular among French book borrowers. This has somewhat dampened my fantasy of moving to France.

I just read somewhere that pollarding is meant to prolong the life of the tree. I'm dubious.

Well, I just wikied and apparently they do live longer: "...pollarded trees tend to live longer than unpollarded specimens because they are maintained in a partially juvenile state, and they do not have the weight and windage of the top part of the tree."

I still don't like it.

bjd, are there more photos on the way, I hope?
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #15 on Apr 12, 2012, 7:47am »		[Quote]
Breeze -- you shouldn't assume that French cafés are full of intellectuals in black turtle-necked sweaters, reading poetry or political essays, having deep philosophical discussions. Smoking is not allowed, for one, unless they sit outside -- which explains why cafés have customers outside even when it's freezing!

Unfortunately, Danielle Steel is indeed popular. There used to be a second-hand English-language book store where I live, run by a Canadian. He told me the French tended to look for best-sellers in English because they were easy to read. No excuse for reading them in French, of course. ;)

I don't have many more pictures. A bakery sign. The "pastis landais" mentioned on the board has nothing to do with the drink. It's a local cake made with apples and very fine pastry.

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The climate is reasonably mild, although I noticed last weekend that quite a few oleanders and other plants had frozen and turned brown.

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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #16 on Apr 12, 2012, 7:53am »		[Quote]
City hall
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This was the park in November, although maybe it belongs in the Reflections thread
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lola
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #17 on Apr 12, 2012, 3:07pm »		[Quote]
I sometimes read Paris Match for the same reason, plus chance to catch up on celeb gossip that I'd snub if in English.

The plane trees/sycamores around the arena seem to have been what we would call "topped." We just cut down a 3/4 dead front yard silver maple that the previous owner'd topped every year or so. Our arborist says opens the tree to disease, plus in this case made for an ugly tree in winter. Sycamore is a very soft wood, though, and litters the ground with branches. I like that pollard look, where it appears that many generations know what they're doing.

It looks like a great bicycling town. Is it possible to bike to a beach?
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bjd
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Re: Quiet town in southwest France
« Reply #18 on Apr 12, 2012, 3:57pm »		[Quote]
As you see on the picture of the city hall, there are all ages of cyclists here. The area is flat. There are lots of bike rentals in summer.

And yes, you can cycle to the beach -- there is a bike path all the way, although the first part through the forest needs some work since the tree roots have made it a bit bumpy.
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