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Médoc excursions

 


Basins of Light in Bordeaux

Basins of Light in Bordeaux Last Thursday we went back to Bordeaux for the first time in a long time. We went to the Submarine Base beside the Garonne: this is an old bunker for submarines dating from WW2 (you can learn more about the bunker for submarines here) where a cultural centre for digital arts opened last year. These “Basins of Light” welcome exhibitions and artistic installations...
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Secret Little Lakes

Secret Little Lakes Last Sunday, I signed up with Oscar the dog for a group walk in the forest, not far from home. We met up in a small carpark next to a little lake. The other dogs, accompanied by their masters and mistresses, were already there. And we set off on the forest path. It was 11 o’clock and we were leaving for 2 hours of ... forest bathing. There were pine trees, oaks and giant ferns...
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Guided tours of the Bunkers

Guided tours of the Bunkers For quite a while now, Medoc Actif has published articles about the end of the war in the Médoc. It all started when the daughter of an old prisoner of war came to try and learn about her father and asked us for help. Other sons and daughters of prisoners were contacted and this subject became an important element in our range of contributions...
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An artistic journey at Montalivet-les-Bains

An artistic journey at Montalivet-les-Bains Do you want art and nature? This summer, Montalivet-les-Bains is offering an artistic journey. Seven installations have been set up along the road around the seaside resort. Discover art while walking or cycling behind the Atlantic dunes: a shark’s fin, 60 waves between the pines, a giant bird in front of a grove...
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A family visit to Cordouan

A family visit to Cordouan Visiting Cordouan is part of our family tradition: we’ve made the trip to Cordouan lighthouse at least once with each of our children and grandchildren. The first time was in 2001 with our youngest child, the last time in 2021 with our two teenagers. In the meantime we have also been to the lighthouse with the “Cordouan and Grave Lighthouses Association”...
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Excursion to the sea station of Le Verdon

port de Saint-Vivien How often have I looked west on the beach of the Médoc and crossed the horizon with my thoughts - in a steamer to America. So it could have been to take the wishful thinking from here to the New World, then as now. And this could have been the case back then: I go to Le Verdon to the Seebahnhof, board the ship after completing all the formalities, busy life on the quay, the chimneys smoking...
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The port of Saint Vivien

port de Saint-Vivien Saint-Vivien. This is a little corner of the region where you need to get out walking and rambling along the little roads that criss-cross it, roads smothered in grasses and wild flowers, well-away from the hurly-burly of the Atlantic coast. In and around the village many people get on their bikes, not only to do a bit of shopping in the centre, post a letter or drink a cup of coffee, but also to go as far as the port and savour a magic moment admiring the light of this “ little Camargue “...
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The Cordouan Lighthouse

Cordouan We visited the tourist office in Soulac to check on forthcoming events and, although it was Autumn we noticed that it was still possible to take the boat to the Cordouan Lighthouse, as we had guests, this was brilliant news. The times of the visit varies as it is linked to the tides, our trip was to be in three days time at 10am. So, lets hope the weather would improve because on the day of the booking it seemed like a force 10 wind was coming off the sea, ideal for the wind surfers but not for our land-lubber guests...
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Royan Market

Royan Market The weather forecast for Saturday was mixed, so we decided to leave weeding the garden and visit the market in Royan, living in the Medoc the journey is quite easy. We caught the morning ferry from Le Verdon as foot passengers (3€ each way) and enjoyed sitting in the warm sunshine on an outside deck for the 20minute crossing. Most visitors to this area think of Royan as a ferry crossing point only...
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The Tour de France comes to Médoc - a personal view

Tour de France After years of watching the Tour de France a personal ambition of seeing a stage of this great race was realised this year as the final time trial came to the Medoc Region on the 24th July. We are privileged to be a member of the St Vivien community spending as much time as possible in France while the remaining time in Britain for work commitments. The opportunity to take a day off house renovations to see first hand the race was an opportunity not to be missed...
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Hollywood in the Médoc

Hollywood in the Médoc The highest tide coefficient of the year in March 2015 resulted in an exceptionally low tide, a good time for a trip to La Negade , Amélie near Soulac, which provided the rarely seen spectacle of much of the exposed wreck of the USA ship Hollywood. On 29 November 1945, this American liner registered under number 2220527 (home port of Los Angeles) came aground off the coast of the Médoc 1.5 Miles to the South West of Soulac sur Mer...
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