Biarritz for Free! Motorhome Life in Anglet
Zagan the motorhome’s a couple of kilometers from the outskirts of Biarritz, a couple of hundred meters from the crashing waves of the Atlantic, and here in the warmth of southern France, a thousand miles from home. We’re in the free (out of season) aire at Anglet (N43.50635, W1.53491), and have been here a few days, soaking up the heat and casting long, languid shadows. The layout of the aire here means over-sized rigs can fit in, the longest is about 16m, a beautiful Frankia towing a Smart car on a trailer.
The motorhome aire in Anglet, 2km from Biarritz and cloudy when we arrived
The view of Biarritz from the beach next to the Anglet aire
Our expected few days chilling out in the sunshine at the Capbreton aire was abruptly cut short by a rapid-fire 9am door knock. A bit of frantic clothes pulling on ensued, as I managed to open the door to receive the news from the polite policeman on the other side: “On va y fermer”. “Aujourd’hui?” I uttered back, a bit surprised I’d understood him, “Oui” he calmly confirmed, before driving to the next motorhome. Ah, they’re closing the aire, now, at this very moment. More franticness as we got dressed, washed up, flung stuff into cupboards and tried to work out where to go, all inside of 3 minutes while we Britishly checked we weren’t going to be the last out. We weren’t the last, giving a thumbs-up to the workmen about to place plastic barriers across the entrance, who smiled and shouted bonne journée at the back of the van. Not much for it: we headed south.
This part of the world, in the creased elbow of the Bay of Biscay, feels busy after the all-but-empty feel of rural France. The roads out of Capbreton felt like over-sized cycle paths, adding to the hemmed-in sensation, edged by white-walled, terracotta tiled villas. Pines remain resolutely green here in the autumn sunshine, and the earth around us sheds sand. Inland the road went, bringing us to a huge Carrefour where we pulled in to grab French goodies, marvel at the 21-a-side babyfoot table, and search in vain for a Maroc en Camping-Car book.
There’s a rumour that terrorist attacks in France have deflected thousands of French motorhomes from their usual overwinter grounds in Morocco to the British and German strongholds of Southern Spain and the Algarve region in Portugal. We’ve been unable to find any motorhome guides to the Moroccan campsites in the supermarkets, and are wondering whether the rumour’s true. We’ll go and have a look in a few weeks and report back, I hope it is if I’m honest, as the campsite compounds and guarded parking areas were sometimes well packed out on our last trip there.
Now THAT’S a table football machine!
The aires along the coast here were showing up as expensive or closed, with this one in Anglet a welcoming exception. We were here a few years back at the start of our two year tour, staring across the ocean at the shaded heights of the Pyrenees and wondering it we’d survive in the unknown wilds of Spain. We remembered the walk along the coast into Biarritz, but forgot the fact the whole aire’s on an endless slope. Reversing onto our ramps we’ve managed to cancel out the fact we’re parked on a hill, although we have to remember the last step now needs ropes to reach the ground without fear of breaking an ankle in the descent.
New words arriving in the French alphabet
I can’t claim we’ve done a great deal since arriving, just letting the days slip by (which I guess is an achievement in itself for us, avoiding the constant moving) and enjoying the calm of it all. The most energetic thing was a run down to the Rocher de la Vierge in Biarritz, jogging along, cursing the inclines on the path and at one point managing to completely lose the other among the beige-and-pink hotels and apartment blocks. We made a relieved rendez-vous at the Rocher, grabbing a photo among the small crowd relaxing there before floating along/dragging our legs back to tick off another 10km. Bushed at the end, we’re foolishly unconcerned that the half marathon in Marrakesh is more than twice the distance. Better lay off the pain au chocolat for a while.
Rocher de la Vierge in Biarritz
The bikes have been out too! After being here a few days our bread and fresh veg had been munched, so out came the refreshingly young blue BSAs (we think Ju’s was made in ’68, mine ’71, so they’re just slightly less young than us). We’ve opted to don helmets when we teeter about on ’em, as we’re, well, inept. Richard’s done a fabulous job prepping them up for us, and once we got the hang of needing to peddle backwards a wee bit when changing gear, and remembered to ride on the right, we flew along like unrestrained turkeys. The shop turned out to be a 5 mile round trip, and but for a minor incident on a roundabout and Ju’s right knee going purple afterwards, it passed without drama. The bikes are again strapped to the back, and I sense they’ll get far more use than the last two we owned.
BSA Bikes in Biarritz (well, Anglet, but who’s heard of Anglet?)
That’s the lot, really, we’ve not much else to report. I’ve stood gawping at the surfers effortlessly flicking about in the December sun, and we’ve poured through books given to us by Larry and Lorraine. Ju’s cut my hair, and made an attempt to de-fur Charlie, being foiled by blunt clippers which no-one back home would sharpen stating “nah, sorry, health and safety stopped that one”, whatever that means. Our friends are working to Plan D and are now taking a ferry to Brittany, so we’re in no rush to nip the 20 miles into Spain. Officially there’s a 48 hour limit on the aire here, but a collection of panel vans with lively, friendly French dissafected youth occupying them, look to have been here for weeks and the periodially passing gendarmes are ignoring them, so we think we’re safe to sit it out a while longer!
Stand-Up-Paddleboarding in the surf, respect to that man’s sense of balance!
Surfing, December, Thursday Afternoon, What’s Not to Like?
They make it look easy, but they also look as fit as fiddles
Cheers, Jay
Just leaving a cold and grey Cornwall, heading for Plymouth, then overnight ferry to Roscoff and the run for the sun #comingtogetya #MarrakechExpress
Go go go! We won’t take much catching guys. We. Are. Slow. Have a great crossing, remember to drive on the right, and not to cry with joy in the wine or pate sections at E Leclerc. :) Jay
I came across this recently – any use? http://www.campingcarportugal.com/areasServico
Paul
Whoop, thanks Paul, that may well prove handy! Cheers, Jay
Hi Guys. When we weren’t wild camping in the desert in our 4×4 camper truck we used J Gandini’s ‘Campings du Maroc’ to find campsites. It’s in French but not hard to follow and includes GPS co-ordinates. Publishers http://www.extreme-sud.com and ISBN details on Amazon.fr I think we bought ours in a supermarket over there but it may be available in France. Bonne journee!
5 mile round trip!! Well done, just what they are good for, loving the blog as usual, almost looking forward to winter now :-))
It’s cold in Toledo! Well it’s been cold in Spain for the past 10 days! Heading north now, ferry in Santander to U.K. In. 10 days, so hope of crazy sunny days over til next trip! Enjoy!! Xx
Hi, just interested to know why they were closing the Aire? my brother is on a trip round Europe, he is in the Algarve at the moment and the sane thing happened to him in portimao last week.
http://www.motorhomeadventure.co.uk if you are interested!
Hi Mark, thanks for the link, we’ll have a look. The locals were probably just closing it down for the winter to save having to patrol it, empty the bins and the like. Cheers, Jay
Hi Jason and Julie,
We’ve been in Morocco since 20 November – your Morocco books have been invaluable to us! – and it’s definitely very very quiet. In 5 of the 7 sites we’ve been on, we were either the only van or one of two. At Meski, we were one of three and Mohammed says ‘hi’ and he’s hoping he will be seeing you both soon.
Cheers,
Helen + Stuart – campervanmatters.com
Cracking! Bring on the quiet campsites and please give Muhammed a hug from us. Tell him we come bearing an iPad and iPhone to swap for a new coat. No bikes this time I’m afraid, we’re hanging onto these puppies. Enjoy the country and the experience, Jay
Send him a message, I am sure he will put a link to you blog on his
Mark
Enjoy your weekend – it’s great to read your blog & we plan to do same in the next few years – can’t wait!!! Sitting in Hermy (our Hymer B634) in the lovely St Andrews, Scotland (wild camping) – it’s bliss. John & Helen
Hello JU and Jay,
you should find the “Campings du Maroc” in Algeciras at Guttierez’s. Guttierez is a small agency selling tickets for the ferry. Most of the French “camping caristes” buy their tickets there. It is situated on the car park of a huge commercial center -where one can park for the night- Nice people and nice prices. How to get there -> http://www.viajesnormandie.net/situacion-agencia-viajes-algeciras.htm
You may also find the guide at the campsite in Martil near tetouan -> http://www.campercontact.com/fr/maroc/marokko-totaal/martil/20032/aire-de-camping-car-camping-al-boustane.aspx . Not a very nice campsite, but very useful when you arrive in Morocco-
and in Marrakech, at the campsite we use (we saw it there last year) ->http://www.hotel-lerelaisdemarrakech.com/
Cheers
Daniel
Thanks Daniel. We’re going to get our tickets from the legendary Carlos anyway, so will ask him about the guidebook too. Pretty sure we’d seen it France in the past, but could have imagined it.
Last I heard there had been a fire at Lidl in Algeciras, so overnight parking there was off. Hopefully it will all be sorted by now.
Ju x
Guttierez now has parking…. we used the book from there and it was great…
Regarding the French in Spain and Portugal etc, there may be one or two more but no problem, not loads as reported…. we are now on our way back…. one Frenchman, on his way to Maroc reversed in to us while we were in bed! In Portugal, so lots of blue forms completed…. he is not back til April, but Comfort insurance seem very efficient…. hopefully….
We have used Anglet too, great Aire….
Enjoy… looking forward to your tales of Maroc…
C
Hi both we have never used the book in Morocco as the majority of sites are on Campercontact and last year i also added every place we have stayed at to the iOverlander app/website which is great for more out of the way countries. Also all our stops over 6 months are on our blog. Weve stayed at some of the places in your book as well. Maybe see you there we are going on the 8 jan for three months. Sam marc and Max (Jrt).
Thanks Sam, good info, appreciated. Hope to bump into you somewhere, cheers, Jay
If you have an older book, dont worry its about the same. I just compared mine from 2010 to version 2016 not much difference and campercontact app will do it. And so so true, all frenchies are in portugal and Spain, will be silent :)
Forgot to say, we always use camping-car infos. The comments are really useful, but, of course, in French…. it does, however, improve our vocabulary…