A couple of nights on the Stella …. Plage
Zagan is still in amongst sand dunes that are twice his height at a free parking place in Stella Plage (N 50.47428, E 1.57729). We’ve decided to chill out here for a couple of days as there is a vast, empty beach just the other side of the dunes.
We’d left Le Portel by 10am, an early start for us, having decided to start to set an alarm so we get up, otherwise in the black-out curtained bed of Zagan we could easily sleep til noon every day. We took a detour via the local Lidl to grab some bottles of water and test out the wine and beer prices. Jay managed to bag some beers at under a €1 a litre (Finkbrau no less) and we picked up our first Briks of wine (1.5l for €1.99), now we can have a taste test against the Aude wine we bought the other day.
Back on the road we headed south for about an hour until we reached Stella Plage. During the drive I spotted my first, of many no doubt, weeing Frenchman at the roadside. Pulling into the small town the sun made an appearance as we joined the other two British vans, suitably spaced apart in the 20 or so parking bays reserved for motorhomes.
We headed off for a look around, discovering a huge beach just over the dunes we were parked in. Looking in each direction we were the only ones on it, so we wandered along the shoreline towards the town. Charlie was back to being a little puppy again, skipping along the beach, eating his own bodyweight in mussel shells and crab claws.
He wasn’t allowed near this very blue jellyfish
Looking out to sea I spotted dark shapes in the water, a closer look through the camera zoom revealed seals eyeing us up.
After a good couple of hours walking we returned to Zagan for hot drinks and some planning. The guide books and motorhome stopover books are being cross-referenced and it looks like we’ll head south west from here to the Loire. In the meantime, Stella Plage is so quiet, and free, so we decided to stop another day.
This morning Jay headed out for a wander around after breakfast and came back to tell me that there was a land yacht race about to take place on the beach. I grabbed my winter coat (it is a bit chilly in the breeze) and off we went. We got to the beach and there wasn’t a sail to be seen, so we walked in the opposite direction to yesterday and along to the next resort. In the distance we could see 4x4s on the beach, and finally further out the sails of the yachts on the horizon.
We hung around as trucks raced up and down the beach, high-vis jacketed officials barked instructions to each other and the yachts danced around the end of the beach. Surely it will all start any second now? A lone rider ventured down our end of the beach, did a couple of loops then headed back to the pack. A truck raced over to the flags marking out the course, this must be it…. then a chap leapt out and collected up the flags. Seems we missed the race somehow!
As we wandered back to Zagan we went along the promenade of the next resort, Merlimont Plage, the apartments and houses all shuttered up for the winter – the place was like a ghost town. We snaffled a few free pooch poo bags that were there to entice the dog owners to pick up after their pets, sadly there was oodles of dog poo on the pavement next to them!
Jesus keeps an eye over the mothballed apartments
After a spot of lunch Jay had an itch he needed to scratch; ‘Bob’ the kayak needed an inaugural run and he was the man to do it. So, I wrapped up in my ski jacket to go and watch/help him. After a bit of instruction reading (it’s been a while since he was last inflated in our yard) he was soon ready to go. Jay headed out into the sea and had a great time surfing the waves.
After about ten minutes of splashing around one of the local seals popped by to see what was going on, but decided it looked too much like hard work, so swam off to chill out with his mates.
We’re back in Zagan with the heating on, ‘Bob’ is in the parking bay next to us drying off and the bottle of Aude wine is in the fridge chilling for later – without mulled wine spices it’s the only way to make it palatable.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Ju x
Bonus pic – Charlie is loving the little pots of chocolate desert here in France!!
Sounding very relaxed already Ju.
Looks like a fun relaxing day. I think you may have a lot of those now. Take care.
Good to see the kayak out! They do look fun. Definitely on the list now :)
Weeing french men, I am convinced they learn early that the toilet which is closer is to be avoided and they use the trees and hedges. We have a wonderful time working out how long it will be before we see the first of the weeing man.