Arcachon Bassin--best area to stay

Old Sep 30th, 2016, 06:50 AM
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Arcachon Bassin--best area to stay

My husband and I intend to spend 2 1/2 days and 3 nights in the area in mid-October. We know we want to walk around the winter resort in Archachon to see the houses, go down to Cap Ferret, maybe visit the dune, take a boat trip across the basin, stop in and see some of the oyster farms etc. If you have any other suggestions for interesting places, walks, things I'd love to hear them. We are not at all interested in centering this around a typical go-to-the-beach vacation. We'll have a rental car.

I'm looking on AirB&B and VRBO for a mid-range apartment for these three nights, and there seem to be lots available since the season is over. Where in the area would you suggest we stay? Right in Arcachon (I've seen a couple apartments on the NE end that seem to have lovely harbor views)? Out in a smaller town on the way to Cap Ferret? Cap Ferret itself?

We'd like convenience and being able to go to some non-touristy moderately priced restaurants.

Some of you gave me advice earlier, and I know some of you are very familiar with this area. Thanks much.
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Old Sep 30th, 2016, 08:22 AM
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I would stay right in Arcachon, but I would never bother with an apartment for 2-3 nights; it's too much trouble given check-in/check-out times, figuring out appliances and building codes, etc. The Dune may not be scalable by a staircase now - they take the ladders down about this time of year, so to ascend you'll have to plow through the sand. The boats across the bassin may not be running, either. There aren't any non-touristy restaurants in Arcachon, but at least the ones that are still open will have some locals in them.
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Old Sep 30th, 2016, 12:05 PM
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Would agree That Arcachon is the safest bet.
There are year round services to Cap Ferret but not sure there is much to do or see in october.
I recently stayed in Andernos-les-Bains, right across the bassin. But it was in august and I could not tell how it is off peak. Locals say it is a year round place as it is close to bordeaux / Mérignac. So could be the second option. It is close to the ocean (the big one !), to cap ferret, not too far from Bordeaux or Médoc, but quite a long way from Arcachon as you have to go all the way round the bassin.
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Old Sep 30th, 2016, 12:59 PM
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Thanks. My gut level had kind of been that staying right in Arcachon itself might be the best bet. Then we can just drive around the basin to see Cap Ferret and that side.

Thanks for the heads up that in the fall they disassemble the staircase to the dune. No way are we going to try to climb (and slip and slide) up the sand hill.
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Old Sep 30th, 2016, 01:13 PM
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We stayed in Arcachon itself for a few nights last year and we found that this place was very pleasant, quiet, and surrounded by nice restaurants:

http://www.lenautic.fr/fr/

it's not right in the centre, but close enough to walk to the winter garden [a tad over-egged in our opinion] and the middle of town.
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Old Oct 1st, 2016, 06:38 AM
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Thanks for the hotel suggestion.

Now I am second guessing myself and wondering if instead of making Arcachon our base for three nights we should just pick up a rental car, pop into the Arcachon for one night, and wander in the Arcachon area back towards Bordeaux so we could spend another day driving north up the estuary. The drive along the Charentes side of the Gironde estuary between Blaye and Bourg and then up to the Royan area to see the Phare de Cordouan and Talmont sur Gironde area up to also sounds lovely.

If Arcachon itself truly is more of a generic tourist trap, one night stop and Daytona beachy type place (as some here have described it) it wouldn't really call to us. I'm assuming Arcachon has your typical boardwalk with all sorts of restaurants and tourist shops. I love wandering about and looking at old house neighborhoods, but if the winter village really isn't all that great and is worth only 1 -2 hours, then perhaps this much time in Archahon is too much for us. We are not in France for the beach, and we've seen lots of ocean in our day. Finally, when driving around the basin will one most see just more modern, purpose built resorts/housing that could be anywhere in the world so people can go to the beach? That really doesn't interest us either, and we'd prefer areas that are unique to France.

Thanks much.
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Old Oct 1st, 2016, 06:48 AM
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Arcachon itself is not really a tourist trap, though it gets buried in people in the high summer. I would give it max one whole day. There are certainly nicer places to eat shell fish along the coast. "boardwalk"

If it were me I'd hire a car and go north towards lands end at the tip of the peninsula west of Bordeaux. Still a few mini tourist sites but very pleasant (with massive dunes), take the ferry over the Gironde (note Verdun fortress straight out of Hornblower on the right bank) and dine your way up to Rochefort (interesting buildings/rope walk/wooden ship and travel bridge) before heading down through Blaye and Bourg, I might avoid St Emilion (which is now a tourist trap) but edge over to say Montbasilac.

Actually you can do all this on a bicycle on bike paths which would be slower but much nicer than in a car.
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Old Oct 1st, 2016, 07:35 AM
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Julies - we did something like what Bilbo describes about 18 months ago, and the best bit was definitely the towns to the east of the Gironde and the bits along the Garonne, especially Cadillac where we found one of the nicest places to stay that I can remember for a long time:

http://www.hotel-restaurant-chateaud...m/uk/index.php

really comfy [we had a huge room] and great food. it was suggested by the TI in the town and we loved it, as we did the sleepy town.

The drive north along the western shore of the Gironde is not that exciting to be honest, though we enjoyed a nice lunch in Pauillac, and the ferry over from the top of the peninsular to Royan where we stayed a night [and had an excellent fish supper] was a lot of fun and had it not been for the rain, I think that we would have enjoyed Blaye too.

As for Arcachon, we weren't bowled over to be honest. the traffic was very heavy, and it took a long time to get there driving through a succession of built up areas with very little to commend themselves, until you get to Arcachon, which I'm not sure is worth the bother.

with only 3 days, I would stay somewhere on the Dordogne or Garonne and use it as a base for exploring the very pretty bits along and in between the two rivers.
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Old Oct 1st, 2016, 09:14 AM
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This is soooooo very helpful!

I guess I should have stated that we will have spent 3 days in Bordeaux itself and then done a 6 day cycling trip around the area (as I recall from our cycling itinerary we ride through Cadillac).

We end our trip with a self-driven boat/barge drip down the Canal de Garonne, so we will be picking up our boat close to Moissac.

I have three free days between picking up the car in Bordeaux and picking up the boat. These are the days I am trying to figure out how to fill. The more you say, I am thinking we may give Arcachon a pass.

I like the idea of going up the eastern side of the estuary as far as we decide to go because I think, no matter what, we aren't all that far from our final destination for car drop off near Castelsarrasin.

My other thought was to just drive to Sarlat from Bordeaux and spend the three nights there as a reconnoitering expedition for a future in-depth trip to the area. According to viamichelin, it is about 3.5 hours of driving to get to Castelsarrasin from Rochefort and 2.5 hours to get to Castelsarrasin from Sarlat.
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Old Oct 1st, 2016, 12:32 PM
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ok, julies, that does rather change the scenario!

Given it will be mid-Oct when hotels should fall on your neck if you want to spend 3 nights with them, why not wait till you're there? you might find that there's an area that you want to go back to, or have a recommendation from someone while you are that you prefer to what we suggest, though 3 nights in Sarlat would certainly be very nice.

however If you decide to do a bit of a tour, on the left bank of the Gironde Pauillac was the most interesting part that we found there and the nice lady at the Maison du Vin directed us to a restaurant in a local vineyard to which we really failed to do justice. it might be nice to spend a night in the village and do some sort of guided tour of the vineyards so that you don't have to drive which cramped our style a bit. after that you could head up to the ferry, cross over to Royan and go up to Rochefort, before heading south to Blaye.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2016, 07:35 AM
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If you follow my name back to one of my threads a couple of years back I did a fair bit of your journey on a bike, it may help
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Old Oct 2nd, 2016, 11:18 AM
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I would definitely just stay in Arcachon. It is really a lovely town. I wouldn't say that it isn't full of tourists, but at least 90% of them are French.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2016, 11:20 AM
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I should add that if you are wandering a bit, Mimizan is also an excellent place to spend a night.
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