Brittany->Bordeaux->Hossegor->Bayonne

Brittany

Full day in Brittany involved oysters by the golf (when they finally arrived) and a tour of Vannes.

This was followed by a swim (sadly no surf) at the big beach near Plouharnel.  Dinner at Auberge Saint Anne was indeed superb.  A gastro treat.

Brittany to Bordeaux

A leisurely morning and lunch in sunny Brittany.  A long drive to Bordeaux- how is it only meant to take 4hours.  This involved a traffic jam at Nantes and lots of motorway.

A stop at Buffalo Grill for dinner- first time at one of these restaurants which aren't too bad at all- certainly good value.  However finding the Hotel Premiere class was not great especially as a major Bride (of Aquitane) was closed.  Needless to say the Hotel Premiere class was not great- we got there at 1 in the morning and left prompley the next day.

Bordeaux and Dont take girls camping!

Saw a few sites of Bordeaux before heading to Dune de Pyla.  Stocked up in huge Leclerc (hardly any people in the Arcachon store).  I like big Leclercs.

Dune de pyla was quite impressive, you get a great voew of the forest.  After that it was onwards to Biscarosse.  Quick surf check revealed continued flatness, not much swell showing yet.  I was curious to see this place but to be honest it was not interesting,

We go to Seignosse before dark to camp.  I had even booked an expensive campsite.  Maria did not like camping.  It was not good. Dont take girls camping!

Hossegor- waves

Finally got in the water.  It was quite sizey first thing and clean.  Unfortunately my fitness and abundance of surfers including good locals meant I did not get my share of the best ones, but had some fun ones on the inside.

After a stock up on a Gateau Basque nd checking itno a hotel- headed back to Seignosse.  This time for a session whoch was a bot onshore but still some alrite waves.

Headed into town in the evening for a few drinks.   Some of the people out were quite strange to say the least.

Hossegor Bayonne

Pretty small gutless waves in the morning from a dying swell.  No oysters either as all the places by the lake were full.

Headed early to Bayonee and checked into the comfort of the nice hotel.  Also had a wander round Bayonne and good pizza for dinner.

Paris, Paris-> Brittany

Headed to Musee D’orsay.  Much better than I expected- although the building is one of the impressive parts.  It was also free!

Walked towards the Effiel Tower.  Lunch ended up being at  brasserie, which for me was one of the worst ever.  This veal escolope arrived with pasta it was like something from a motorway service station.  Desert was from this specialist mereingue place which was much better.

Effiel Tower was really for pictures for Maria, which included crossing the river to trocadero

This was followed by heading to the arc d Triumphe, down the Champs-Elysee, past the Louvre and onto towards Chatlet and Pompidou after stopping at one of the bridges.

Finally in the evening we ate by far the best food in Paris, which was at an Auvergne restaurant.  Although it was touristy the food was epic and the meat so good that in the end had to order wine.  Even if the service was slightly prickly, it made up for the below food par of so far.

Next day headed to Vincennes for a walk around the park followed by lunch at Bistrot Dagorno.

Took the Metro towards the Louvre- the first time I had ever visited.  Thanks to the tip from my Mother we went through the shopping centre and did not have to queue at all.  I was free thanks to being below 26.  Saw various ancient stuff and this Mona Lisa.

Afterwards we headed to the banks (of the Seine) for a drink with one of Maria’s friends. 

After walking for a while without finding much restaurant wise we headed bback to the Effiel Tower so Maria could get her night photos.  We finaly arrived back late at Nation and I was starving.  Fortunately a Bistro was still serving and the food wasn’t bad either.

Today was more of a driving day- onwards to Brittany.  Generally an easy drive although in such nice weather it was not great to sit in a car without air con.  The weather was so nice that on arrival at the house jumped into the see and had 3 swims.

Paris 1 and drive from London

Left London with plenty of time, which was just as well as navigating my way through Croydon was a bit of nightmare.  What an awful place, I would hate to live there.  So far out, yet so terrible.  I eventually joined the A23, which eventually became the M23.  This was fairly quick, although the road signs had my worried as they said the A23 was closed- which thankfully it wasn’t.  In the end got to Brighton quickly, then it was not far to Newhaven.

Didn’t see much of the town, but is a standard grotty port town.  The ferry was pretty knackered out hulk with the Transmanche branding on it.  Cabin was a bit musky and knackered but in the end it was a short crossing.  After a bit of deck time watching departure I bedded down.

I slept, but not for long as the journey was short.  I almost questioned the point in having a cabin.  Having said that we arrived in good time.

It was a pretty smooth journey pre morning daylight across and through and I was able to get to Roissy to pick up Maria in good time.  Equally good was the journey to the hotel which was smooth as anything, helped by knowing where I was going.  This is the advantage of staying somewhere you have been before.  Less good was parking in the hotel car park box, whereby I put a bash on the front of the car.   It was a tight space.

After this we headed to Bastille and the Place de Vosges.  This was a tad touristy and we ended up eating a bit of a disappointing lunch at a Brasserie.  When I say disappointing I had a steak tartar which you can’t really go wrong with, but Maria’s duck was pretty average.

Later headed to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. However in the process, we got off the tube Barbes Rochechouart which views with Croydon in awfulness.  The area was full of police and dodge.  To be honest I didn’t really like going up the Sacre Coeur, it was full of bloody tourists.  As was the rest of Montmartre. 

After walking down Pigalle, past some pretty grim looking street workers we headed to Butes Chammont which was really good.  It is one of the few things in Paris I had never done so was good to go.  As was the sunset.

I decided I wanted to go this bar called La Fine Mousse, which I heard about on some blog.  Basically it services good French beers (hard to believe in a land of s*** beer).  Unfortunately it was difficult to find so after having drinks in 2 bars, then a crepe we got chatting to someone with internet pointing us towards the bar.  In the end we did find it and it was worthwhile.  Tucked away and local but great beer and a nice bar to match.  If you don’ drink beer they even served decent cider (Breton style).

Runton surf

Was heading home and there was chance of some surf.  The biggest of it was Friday night before and looking at the webcam there was not much hope.  However the tides were on my side (for once).

So I chanced it- and scored (for Norfolk anyway).  1-2ft and clean, warm and sunny.

Few other guys- took the 6'10 orange rocket out.  Waves were kind of weak but got a few ones.  Got out as my parking ticket ran out.  Having not easten or drank I headed back rather than topping up the meter.  Wished I had stayed longer!

Last night in Rio

It was a big bonus arriving in Rio early.  It made the evening more relaxing.  I was keen to have a proper Brazilian meat dinner having never had the experience before so we headed to Porcao. Initially we discovered that the jockey club one was not the complete one, so we headed to the Ipanema branch.  It did not disappoint.  Lots of meat and a buffet that included sushi- was in the element.  I ate less than I would have expected- but still very good.  Meat ranged from cuts of beef, to chicken hearts, pork and great lamb- served Brazilian style.

We awoke reasonably early the next day and headed to Leblon beach.  The waves were small and clean.  Had an average Leblon session catching a few waves and was pleased to get in the water.  Headed back to finish packing before lunch at Pizzeria followed by ice cream and time by the beach.  We even built a sand castle and I got my last coconut. 

I got taxi quite early to arrive at the airport in good time, and fortunately I was able to get him to drive to both terminals as I couldn’t remember which was BA.  BA fly from terminal 2 at Rio!

Salvador- the verdict

Regarding Salvador, we had had passed through on the way but not really seen it.  I was unsure exactly what to expect.  I had heard mixed things from dodgy, historic and culturally completely different.  The centre is certainly much older than most of what I had seen in Brazil.  It kind of reminds me a little of Lisbon.  There are plenty of churches, colourful buildings.  But the place is really grotty. 

We checked in to our hostel, which was a bit weird as we were just up the street in another building.  At first we lucked in and ended up at a free concert.  The night we arrived was a festival night.  We grabbed some beers and followed locals from concert to concert all open free and happy.  

We continued our walk around eventually looking for a restaurant.  In one of the squares a guy came up to us- beware of the friendly ones.  Then he started saying he sold Marijuana, so politely tried to move on.  I could not get Maria to move on fast enough.  The guy then started wanting money for no reason at which point I knew we should leave.  He went on some rant, which fortunately Maria told me the next day translated as ‘I am going to stab you with a knife so you get my AIDs’… charming.  I may add we were in the centre among people and the guy looked quite pathetic, but still.

We had a Bahian dinner in a restaurant near the hostel.  When I got back I fell straight to sleep and slept until the next day.  Clearly the ferry took it out of me.

The next morning we explored the town.  To be honest it was a bit disappointing.  We did not go into any of the Museums and didn’t really leave the small part of the centre where we saying- due to safety- which was probably a bit over precautious.  

We did the famous elevator.  At the bottom there was not much the market was touristy and here were a lot of abandoned buildings.  At the top we also got hassled by this woman in a Bahian costume.  She got photos with us but then tried to demand a stupid amount of money (10 reals).  Fortunately Maria got her to bugger off in the end, but I’m sure many have fallen to her scam.  We wandered around before getting the taxi to the airport.  In general Salvador was quite grotty and poor. However the worst thing was the rudeness of the people in general.  Compared to Itacare which was so clean and happy this was a world away.  Even the hostel owner was rude to Maria.  As an English guy had said the night before of Salvador: ‘see the centre and then get the f*** out’.  I have no idea what the beaches or Barra area are like- they could be quite nice, but I doubt they would compare to Itacare.

However we lucked in at the airport.  My insistence we arrive early, meant seasoned traveller Maria was able to get us on an earlier flight to Rio.  No hanging around, straight onto the plane and great seats to ourselves at the front.  It was an easy flight and we even got our luggage right away.   The wait for an accredited taxi was a bit long unfortunately.  However I made my moment on Iranian TV.  I was interviewed regarding the World cup and Rio airport infrastructure- I was quite blunt in my assessment- sorry Brazil, but it is true.

Itacare- the last day and to Salvador

Final full day in Itacare.  Kept seeming to wake up slightly queasy.  Not quite sure why- maybe Bahia water?  I have called this ‘Bahia belly’.  Most of the day was spent at Tiririca- with 3 separate surf sessions and time on the beach. 

The first session was quite fun in small but fairly steep waves.  Didn’t catch a lot at first but it picked a few waves.  A local photographer caught some shots- which show my lack of style in the water.

The second session was less successful.  There was this weird rip running through at low tide- everything was closing kind of Rio style.  After sitting on the beach the rain arrived- and there was a heavy shower.  This was the point we headed to have lunch (latish) at the bar.  We had a fish stew which was pretty nice and avoided most of the rain.

The wind had got up a bit and the waves were slightly larger.  I paddled out- I think I was the only non-local.  The line-up was really competitive with Brazilian rippers, which was frustrating.  The best wave I had I was dropped in on although after some shouting the kid pulled out.  I think this was the best session of the day- but the ultra-good crowd slightly curtailed the wave count.

I got back earlier to watch the Chelsea Atletico game which sadly went the wrong way.  This was followed by a light Tapioca dinner.  The evening was passed at favela bar where the music was good.  I had a fair few beers and we chatted with some English guys at length who were staying in the hostel. All in all a good night.

The next morning we were due to leave.  Originally I had planned to surf but again Bahia belly ruled that out.  After breakfast we opted for the earlier 11 bus.  It was really smooth journey, the only thing that annoyed me was 3 reals extra for the board- just the principle.  On the way we passed the same towns, including one which seemed to have a football match/ festival.  The bus was quite comfortable so no complaints.

On arrival in Bom Despacho we got straight on the ferry which was handy.  However as previously documented the ferry is grotty, crowded and hard work with luggage (especially the amount and size we had), so something I’m glad to do one last time only. 

At the other end a taxi whisked us up the cobbled streets of Salvador.