Last week myself and some of my family made the fourteen hour car trip down to South West France. This has become something of a tradition and most summers we embark on the same kind of adventure, just slightly varying up the area that we stay.
We rented out the most spectacular home to stay in during our time there. It sat alone at the top of a hill, providing us with 360" views of the most beautiful scenery. It was by far one of the best places we have rented when travelling down to France.
The home itself is owned by a famous pianist, Louis Van Dijk, and throughout the entire place beautiful art and inspiration fill the rooms. It really is a wonderful place and I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to stay somewhere so beautiful.
Enough of my ramblings, let me show you what we got up to..
The 360" views from the top of the hill enabled us to watch both the sun rise and the sun set. This is the one of the many stunning sunsets we watched from the front terrace. Of course accompanied by a bottle of the local rose´.
Watching the evening sun wasn't the only natural beauty we were blessed with. For the first couple of days we watched numerous storms roll in from behind the hills of the valley.
The grounds of the villa were filled with spectacular flower displays. Another joy of visiting European countries is the wide array of flowers & the predominant scent that accompanies them.
Once the storms of the first days cleared, we travelled up to the small town of Duras where this breathtaking castle is situated. It's propped on the edge of the hill giving more breathtaking views. We payed to tour around the inside of the castle which was lovely. A lot of restoration has taken place to keep it in it's former glory. Some of our party took the scarily narrow, twisted, stone staircase up to the top of the tower where I took the above photo looking over the town of Duras.
Hettie waiting outside the doors of the castle, ready to take the grand tour.
As our time in France went on, the weather began to improve so we decided to take the drive across to Bordeaux and visit Dune Du Pilat. Europe's tallest sand dune. It wasn't the first time I had been to the Dune du Pilat as I had visited before on a residential trip when I was in school. It was still really exciting to go back and I felt a great sense of nostalgia.
The dune itself is a hundred metres tall and the photos really don't do it any justice. It's phenomenally high. There are two routes up, the easier of the two being the wooden stairs directly up or if you're feeling more daring you can go freestyle and climb up the sandy side. Both times I've visited I've gone for the harder option and climbed up without the use of the stairs. Something I'm quite proud of as my fitness levels are really nothing to be proud of at all!
The atmosphere once you've reached the top of the dune is incredible. There's a buzz from everyone and a great sense of achievement. Not forgetting the absolutely spectacular views. They really are breathtaking, from the front of the dune you look over miles and miles of forest and tree tops, as well as being able to look over fabulous blue ocean on the far side.
We opted to continue right over the top of the dune and head down the other side where we reached a beautiful, quaint beach. We set up for a few hours of relaxation on the sand and made the most of the high temperatures.
At the end of the day we opted out of hiking back up the sand dune and down the other side to the car, and took a locals advice on walking around the side of it back towards the car park. Although a lot less strenuous, it took a lot longer. We actually ended up getting lost and walked four miles out of our way by accident. Although not so fun at the time when we were trekking along with all our beach gear in 35 degree heat, we all laugh looking back now.
Of course, the whole holiday wasn't spent out and about visiting various tourist attractions. We spent a considerable amount of time just enjoying each others company, the beautiful surroundings and the pool (of course).
Paige x
