January 25, 2026 - Arcachon and la Dune de Pilat.

Today was another long day. We were out of the apartment at 7:15 to catch the tram to the train station. We had tickets for the 8:30 train but we managed to make it there in time to catch the 8:03 train. We had open tickets so even if there is a time stamped on your ticket you can get on whenever you want during that day. By taking the 8:03 bus we thought that we would then be able to make the 9:30 bus, but it turns out that the schedule the tourist bureau had given us was not correct, there was no bus to La Dune de Pilat before 10 so we had 45 minutes to wait. 

After a bumpy half hour ride on the bus, we arrived at the dune. It is huge, very long and very high. At this time of the year there are no stairs , so you’re climbing up in sand with a lot of backsliding. The dune is 500 meters wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length. It is 106 meters high. It is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It was not an easy climb, but we made it. Once on the top it’s easier to walk. Note easier does not translate to easy. Going down was different as well. It was all worth it because the view is amazing. We wanted to sit down and just enjoy the view but there were many sandflies, so we opted not to sit. Tonight, we are having a well-deserved beer. 

What we are up against - a long way up

An idea of the slope

Jacques coming back from finding a cache

Rest stop

Notice the two people half way down

Views from the top

Heading back down

Rollande almost back down

Time to empty out the shoes of sand

After the dune, we returned to Arcachon via the bus and searched for a place to eat lunch. We had the best meal so far since we have arrived in France, duck breast salad. The Asian type salad dressing with all the vegetables and avocado with the duck on top was delicious. Then it was time for a few caches. This series of five took us on a loop where we presume the very rich live. The houses were huge and some looked like small castles. Obviously, their wallets are thicker than ours. It was a nice area. We stopped to watch what must have been a ‘’petancle’’ tournament because they were taking the games seriously, measuring with a ruler the differences between balls. Our series also took us to a viewpoint of Arcachon. Once there we saw a platform with lots of stairs. I volunteered to climb up. It wasn’t too bad a climb compared to climbing the dune in the sand but about 3/4 of the way up, I could feel the stairs shaking or vibrating, not a great feeling. We were in the approved number of people allowed on the platform (8). At the top, I quickly took my pictures and started on my way down. I am not a big fan of heights so didn’t feel all that comfortable at the railings looking down.

Interesting building

Rollande braving the climb

Views from the top

Beautiful homes

We finished our series and headed back to the train station in time to make the 4:00 train back to Bordeaux arriving back around 5:30 at the apartment. In the meantime, we had a message saying that the internet had been fixed with the new password.