It’s not just been Sarah and I who have been relaxing after a few long days on the road, the whole of Mimizan Plage seems to be going to sleep, in its case for the winter.

Basil resting up after a hard few days.

The weather here is like the best day in a British summer – mid to high 20’s, clear blue sky and a lovely warm sea breeze. But that’s not enough to keep the tourists in these southern resort towns. The French, in particular, seem to all holiday en masse. As soon as the August holidays finish everyone disappears.

The dogs have been for a romp on the beach with Sarah first thing, before surfers and assorted beach lovers arrived for the day. Being on the Atlantic surfing, or at least surf boards, seem popular around here. But yesterday there wasn’t anyone surfing when we went down to the beach.

We all went for a longish walk into the main part of Mimizan Plage to check out the local market, which turned out to be small and indoors. Fruit and vegetables were bought at way above supermarket prices, but my favourite purchase was some lovely home made black tapenade. For anyone who hasn’t tasted tapenade it is one of the world’s great treats, in my opinion. Minced olives, with garlic and, I think, sometimes capers. It’s great with French bread for lunch.

Looking down the river to the beach

It was obvious wandering around around Mimizan Plage that in the height of the summer it must be heaving with people. We came across the biggest ice cream shop I have ever seen. It had dozens of soft set ice cream dispensers, almost the same number of “slush puppy” machines and an enormous area for “proper” ice cream, which was now empty. There were still a few people wandering around the assorted tourist shops, which I would normally refer to as tat shops, except Mimizan Plage is a bit too up market for kiss me quick hats and the like. Quicksilver and other surfer brands seemed to be more the order of the day.

Have ever seen so many ice cream machines in one shop?

On our walk to and from the town we were again reminded that the French are undoubtedly one of the worst nationalities for for picking up dog mess. Having travelled, with dogs, in 20 European countries, I think we are in a position to make such a sweeping generalisation. Sarah found dog fouling on the beach and on our walk there were nasty little deposits in all sorts of places, although admittedly not in the town centre. Our campsite provides free bags, but some people clearly are not getting the message. Rather humorously when I am paying for things in shops I often dip into my pocket and come out with a handful of dog poo bags before I can find my money, that’s how uptight I am about this subject!

Mimizan Plage – “tat central”

We spent the rest of the day relaxing. Sarah has been to the pool and I have started doing some more serious planning on the first part of our Spanish adventure. I hope the weather stays reasonable in northern Spain because it looks as if there are some great sights.

The idea tonight is to have our first meal out. Because it is so far to the main town, we may brave the campsite restaurant. I doubt it will be particularly brilliant, but we have occasionally been surprised by good cooking on campsites.