TravelerKaren

Julie, we are thinking of this area for next September. Where are you staying in these cities? Will be interested to hear from you when you return about your thoughts.

JulieVikmanis

Karen, In La Rochelle we are staying at Mercure La Rochelle vieux-Port Sud. In past years when we traveled by car we stayed in La Flotte on Ile de Re at the Richelieu and also at Hotel de Toiras, but those have increased in price significantly in the intervening years. Both were quite lovely as should be expected. I'll let you know how the Mercure turns out when we return. I'd also check the Ibis where kerouac stayed, looked quite interesting from his pictures and it's certainly well located in La Rochelle.

BritishCaicos

TravelerKaren

Julie: Thank you for your feedback. I'll be anxious to read your TA when you return.

joannyc

@TravelerKaren: I am staying at this apartment on my upcoming visit to La Rochelle. It is accessible by elevator and includes a parking spot.

https://www.vrbo.com/995734a?utm_cam...&adultsCount=1

BritishCaicos

joannyc

BritishCaicos

TravelerKaren

joannyc: Thank you for this link. The apartment looks fantastic. Will be anxious to hear about your trip after you return. When are you going?

joannyc

TravelerKaren

joannyc: Have a wonderful time in France on your upcoming trip. Glad to hear you were able to rent that apartment in La Rochelle for 3 nights and didn't need to rent for a week. I also wanted to thank you for your trip details that you sent me on your eastern France trip. We put many of those recommendations and ideas to good use. We had a wonderful time in Burgundy, Alsace, Black Forest and Berner Oberland,Switzerland.

joannyc

Thanks very much, TravelerKaren! And, you are more than welcome for the eastern France info. Thank you for your France info that you sent to me, I'm sure I will make very good use of this info as I delve into the planning details.

The VRBO and AirBnB apartments that I'm renting this trip are for 2 or 3 nights each. Sarlat will be the longest rental at 9 nights.

Maribel

Julie,
Last summer we spent 4 nights in Arcachon in the Ville d'Hiver quarter, the "winter town". If you ever decided to spend an overnight or two there, I can recommend the lovely, architecturally interesting Hotel Ville d'Hiver and its restaurant.

While we did have a car to travel to the Dune du Pylat to the south and all the way around Cap Ferret (takes most of the day round trip), there is frequent and easy 30-minute boat shuttle service for those who arrive car-less in Arcachon and want to venture to the Cap Ferret peninsula. No need to rent a car or take a very long, slow, expensive taxi ride due to heavy traffic.
This water shuttle departs from the main Arcachon "summer town" beach at the Jetée Thiers and arrives in Cap Ferret at the southern end at the Jetée Bélisaire, where you'll find the well-known Le Pinasse Café.
There are also many excursions via navette or catamaran of the entire bay from Arcachon.

We chose to dine in Le Canon on Cap Ferret where the oysters are divine. You can take the boat shuttle to the Cap Ferret Jetée Belisaire, and then taxi the short distance north (a few kilometers) to Le Canon and dine at one of the famous oyster cabanes there, away from the day trippers, such as LA CANFOUINE, right off the main road, which we loved. No stoves at these cabanes, just Madagascar and Girond shrimp and the most wonderful oysters you can imagine, accompanied by great bread, butter and a bottle of le Canon rosé or white. It was a great recommendation I found on lefooding.com. It's open all year.
https://lefooding.com/en/restaurants/restaurant-la-canfouine-lege-cap-ferre

The boat shuttle from Arcachon to Lege Cap Ferret runs daily in September. The Lége Cap Ferret taxi number is 06 20 28 49 47.
The navettes and excursions schedule found here:
https://www.bateliers-arcachon.com/welcome/

I also had Chez Boulan at the lighthouse in Le Canon on my hit list (a rec of Parnassian on Chowhound), but we decided to dine at its newish sibling in Bordeaux instead. A great place for oysters in the antique district of Chartrons, where we stayed at Chez Dupont suites.
https://www.chezboulanbordeaux.fr
We did have oysters at the iconic shack in Arcachon, Le Cabane de l'Aiguillon, in the fishermen's quarter but they didn't hold up to those of Le Canon or even those in Arcachon's renovated covered market, the Halle Baltard.

We just had our 3rd consecutive stay in Bordeaux this week and just love this vibrant city.

We're planning a 5-night stay in La Rochelle next summer and 2 nights in Nantes, so I'm so happy to have opened this thread and especially the apartment info from joannyc!

JulieVikmanis

So wonderful to hear from you again and to get all this fantastic info on Arcachon. Now I'm really sorry we didn't book a stay there rater than just a day trip. Certainly sounds like we, too, will be returning. We are both oyster lovers and this sounds like mecca for us. Apologies for being so late in responding. Certainly grateful to get such useful information--and from such a great source. Thanks. Now I'm really excited for our trip.

Maribel

Hi Julie,
Yes, le Bassin d'Arcachon is certainly a mecca for oyster lovers (as are Brittany's Cancale and Bélon, as you well know, where we recently had magnificent ones).
The oyster bar at the Halles Baltard (the redone Arcachon municipal market) will also serve you up some nice ones.
I think you'll most definitely want to return.

The drive south from Arcachon to Pyla-sur-Mer had me in awe of the gorgeous neo-Basque homes there. *Had we been able to splurge on luxury lodging we would have stayed at Philippe Starck’s Hotel Ha(a)ïtza in Pyla. *But the Hotel Ville d'Hiver in Arcachon's winter town also is architecturally beautiful, has a gourmet restaurant and also a beach club bistrot at Plage Péreire, our favorite beach there.

The area has its own still and sparkling mineral water, Abatilles, that's a source of local pride, which we ordered at every meal.
Another casual dining spot that we enjoyed in Arcachon: Le Bistrot du Port at 5, rue du Port, in the fishing quarter, l’Aiguillon (it was a le Pudlo recommendation).

And just last week in Bordeaux:
Restaurant Miles on Rue du Cancera for a gourmet meal--quite reasonably priced, prepared by 4 young chefs from different parts of the world who met at Ferrandi cooking school in Paris and trained with Robuchon--and Soif, a new bistrot à vins next door to Miles, for lunch.

And thanks so much for your recommendation in La Trinité-sur-Mer.
I just loved the look and feel of this seaside town and would like to return to stay at Le Petit Hotel des Hortensias. Beautiful spot!

JulieVikmanis

Maribel, Thanks for all this great info.

I'm now starting to regard our one day trip to Arcachon as a scouting expedition to identify everything we want to return to on another trip--possibly with our daughter and family (with 10 year old twins) Sounds perfect, and if we like Bordeaux this time as much as I expect to, it could be a perfect duo (larger city and beach resort) for our 2021 trip with them (we're pretty settled on Barcelona for 2020 with them but or I'd try to rearrange for 2020 ) Sounds like Arachon is oyster heaven--and one of the 10 year olds is already a big fan. Appreciate the recommendations for so many good places.

Thanks also for the recs for dining in Bordeaux. Looks like we'll be hard-pressed to fit in all the great places we'll encounter there. Thanks for the help making these important decisions. So sorry for the possibly missed opportunity to meet you. Will try to figure out how to use the private message system here to share travel plans in case we might somehow find another match up on any of our upcoming trips.