We're travelling but we're not actually on holiday, believe it or not. We're doing this Digital Nomad thing. In fact, here's a little video of Cuong working whilst popping back in Cognac that I forgot to share, don't know how he does both! NB: he was popping on his own tunes via headphones, not the Mylene Farmer's track playing on the TV!
So the main reason we are staying in Andarnos for 5 days was to visit 2 of my work colleagues, a French/American couple, who have become really good friends over the years. They live in Lanton, 15 minutes from Andarnos.
We expected Andarnos, with its 11 000 inhabitants, to be a sleepy little town, but it turned out to be a great place! It was lively, with interesting houses and a lot of pine trees. They are my favourites aside of palm trees, because they reminds me of summer camping holidays on the beach in France... Locals were jolly and friendly, so they told us about a huge event which attracts up to 30 000 people a year, called the "Cabanes en fête", meaning "Huts in celebration".
Basically, you pay 10 euros which give you one glass of wine, 3 fresh large oysters, and access to lots of huts selling seafood (such as sea knives with butter, garlic and parsley) at 2.50 euros per portion. The event also includes funky tradditional bands leading cheerful, unpretentious dances.
Houses in Andarnos are logically made out of pine or painted in the Basque style (white with red or green shutters and beams). There are no big grey depressing stone buildings. We loved our Airbnb which was quite different from the stylish loft in Cognac, a cosy warm hut. Cuong suffered a bit with the cluttered style, it messes with his Fen Shui brain, but I enjoyed it!
It's not that easy to capture in picture the soul of a town, but this one definitely captured ours, with its neighbouring pine forest and great dune. Andernos has this holiday feel, lively yet peaceful, merging with unspoilt nature. Its people are young, middle age or old but noone is left out. They seem to know the value of a smile and a chat with strangers and how to enjoy themselves without dodgy airs and graces. We were pleased to find out about a large number of sports and things to do, cinema, spa, savate (French martial arts like kickboxing but with shoes - that hurts, got really into it one year it's great fun and fierce, but for competitions, you have to wear lycra. Not making this up!), climbing, sailing, windsurfing, motorcross, bird watching, surfing, seashell fishing, etc, etc. All this makes Andernos our favourite town to hang out in France so far.
Oh yeah, we visited the tourist town of Arcachon nearby but there was a bit of a contract. In its own way it's a beautiful town, but not for us. We found it a bit cold, empty, and 'Bourgeois', the beach was cool but yeah, but no. I'll put a couple of pics just because. We're getting fussy now!
Now off to the Basque country in Hendaye!
PS: everything has a price, Didi caught an ear infection probably from rolling in the dune, and her teeth are a mess probably from eating bits from too many of our deserts, so she's going to the vet in Hendaye for an MOT and teeth scaling!
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