When I arrived at Club Atlantique in Lit et Mixe it looked pretty dead. After a brief wait Madame appeared from a back room and booked me in. Her English was worse than my French so we got by in Franglais and she showed me to Cabin 100 which had a double bed and a shower room. The whole site extends over 7 hectares with cottages that sleep up to 5 people but there were very few occupied at the moment. The first major problem was that the Wifi didn’t work in my room so I had no option but to take phone and computer to the poolside bar and write the blog there. The upside was that I met Stan(islas). I’m not sure of the hierarchy but he was either owner or manager and spoke pretty good English. I had a couple of small beers to wash away the journey and settled down to the blog which I completed in time to watch France v Uruguay in the company of Stan who was quite vociferous. I’d seen enough by half time and went back to the cabin thinking I might watch some of the second half on the TV in the room but after wrestling with the controls all I could come up with was this:

I think it’s Turkish but I’m not sure. Anyway it didn’t help me watch any tele so I went to bed and slept pretty well with my bike in the room. Breakfast was standard french with some slices of cheese and some yoghurt and apple. It was fine for the day ahead.

I bumbled about a bit getting ready to go and didn’t leave until 0930. I wasn’t sure what to expect as it’s a while since I planned the route which was across a part of France that is relatively tourist free due to it being the Landes Forest, the largest man made woodland in western Europe. It’s size is reflected in the fact that I shall still be in it all day tomorrow. It is heath land, basically sand with heather and bracken growing readily and the main timber is Maritime Pine (Pinus Pinaster) which is now used largely to make particle board although I came across sawmills during the day. A major storm in 2009 demolished a lot of the forest so there is substantial new planting. This is also Gascony home of D’Artagnan, foie gras, grilled chestnuts and Bordeaux wine but more of that tomorrow.

I made my way through the villages of St Julien-en -Born and Mézos before coming across the first problem of the day when my planned route took me down an unsurfaced track through the forest. I looked at the map and decided the alternative would take me out of my way and went for it past a local foraging for mushrooms.

Not a good decision: cycling on sand is hard enough anyway but doing it on a bike with loaded panniers is suicidal. I got off and pushed, fortunately only for about half a mile before I came across a tarmac road.

The rest of the morning was spent on straight, narrow single track roads. Fortunately not a lot of traffic but what there was travelled fast and I felt vulnerable.

I was about 30 miles into the journey at Parentis-en-Born and lunch beckoned. There is a street in the middle of town with four restaurants in a row. I settled on Chez Flo which was offering a Menu de Jour at 19 euros for three dishes.

I was able to park the bike close to my table and enjoyed a small beer and a carafe of water whilst waiting for a very well dressed and tasty vegetable salad and an excellent dish of cod fillet on a custard tart with broccoli

Pudding was a coffee cream with peaches and brandy snap. A very nice meal that will keep me going until breakfast tomorrow. Chez Flo and its surrounding establishments were doing an excellent trade.

Unfortunately for me the next 20 miles were on the same straight narrow roads that I had suffered this morning.

It is made harder because there is nothing to relieve the monotony. Even a large solar park didn’t help much and I was stopping regularly to drink. Finally 50 miles into the journey I found a cycle track at Mios that took me the rest of the way to Andernos. It was well used including a number of cyclists towing their dogs in trailers. I fancied a bottle of claret to enjoy whilst composing the blog (4.19 euros and very drinkable)

so stopped at a Carrefour about four miles from my destination which is on the Bay of Arcachon which extends about 8 miles inland from the open sea. It’s a popular destination for yachtsmen making their way south from Brittany to Spain and is the only Basin in the Landes that is still open to the sea. I passed by several Etangs today that would have been similarly ocean bays in the past but have now silted up and become inland lakes.

I’ve a similar disatance to travel tomorrow but it appears to be almost exclusively off-road. It’ll still be hard work peddling all the way but not having to cope with fast moving traffic will make it a lot more enjoyable.