Day 11 Moliets-et-Maa to Hossegor 30km
Woke at 5.20, and heard the cock crow on the farm as the day started to get that grey light. Tent down and breakfasted before heading off just before 6am. Its grey and overcast so no sunrise to see this morning.
Walked through town and picked up the route markings at the church (toilets) then into square at mairie and fronton court (definitely getting further south!). Then off onto a series of paths and lanes through woods (not pine!), past fount & lavoir, by ponds but of course back to pine forest. There was about 500m of soft sand climbing up and down a small hill that took some effort, and given it was warm and humid I got a bit sweaty, otherwise the rest was lovely walking on earth paths.
Today I am describing as like walking the
camino frances but French resort style - though there were no other pilgrims there was a bar at least every 5-6km, which was a definite change from the last 3 weeks! So after first 6km I reached the outer limits of Messanges at a campsite with bar and shop which open at 8am- I was a little too early, but I was happy to get some more kilometres in before 2nd breakfast.
The next bit was on tracks through pines to the edge of the next town. Thankfully there were gravel pathways through a good proportion of Vieux Boucau les Baines. And it was market day- only a few early birds out in this resort town, but some quiche and fruit gave me a perfect picnic for 2nd breakfast looking out at the tidal lagoon.
But then the walking conditions were less than great - onto a bike path beside a main road. Tar and traffic noise- so for the first time this trip in went a headphone (only one so I could still hear any bikes) and on went some upbeat music. After 6km at a campsite I stopped at their bar for a coffee- more just to escape the road for a bit than any need!
Soon enough I was in Seignosse. Got my credential stamped in the tourist office and headed to look for coffee- found cute cafe called Cocooning Coffee - Madame ushered me to a big squishy sofa and I had a cappuccino (so many bars in France have fancy coffee machines but they only know how to do espresso or a long black coffee). It was hard to move from the sofa.
As it was nearly noon, I decided to get another couple of kilometres in before stopping for lunch. This whole area is built up right through to Capbreton tomorrow. Many of the restaurants in these resorts are burgers or pizza, a few places with poke bowls are springing up though which sounded a better option today. (There are some pricey restaurants but I look rough and it's Monday s they tend not to be open)
Having filled my tummy I headed down to the beach. I walked 1/2km on the beach but the tide had just turned and there was little hard sand to walk on and had a decent camber - so at next point I could get off I did. But this left me walking on road bike paths ust behind the dunes to Hossegor. One piece of advice at Hossegor is to ignore the camino signs and instead take the seafront path! Unfortunately they were working on this in preparation for July/August so many machines, workmen and noise, and most businesses were shut- which was disappointing as I was promising myself ice-cream as I was at beach.
Accomodation options in Seignosse and Hossegor are limited- these are towns with holiday houses and apartments plus holiday resorts. There are some surf hostels a few of which take one night bookings. So I am in Jo&Joe hostel in a dorm for €30 but it was the cheapest option! It was previously some sort of holiday complex that got rundown and is now a hostel with multiple buildings and a huge garden area.