Rest day: Bastille Day in Les Sables

The 14th of July is traditionally a day of celebration in France, with street parties and fireworks the order of the day across the country. Knowing this, we had planned a rest day in Les Sables that would coincide with Bastille Day. Having locked the bikes in a storage cupboard at the hotel, we set off to explore the resort on foot for a nice change. I spent some time on the beach, whilst Dad wandered around some of the older parts of town, scouting out what might be occuring later on in the afternoon/evening as part of the festivities.

 

Enquiring at the Bar du Pont, which had become something of a local due to its proximity to the hotel, we were told that a open air music concert, and fireworks would be going on quite near, from 7 onwards. We decided to eat first, and then find where this concert was supposedly happening, which didn't take much doing as it turned out the party was pirate themed, which made it an easy task of following the swathes of Blackbeard type characters towards the town square.

A good crowd of people were gathered, with the cheapest beer we had seen in all our time in France (still €2 a half!) flowing freely. Around 11 o'clock the masses began to congregate on the waters edge, for what we guessed must be the firework display. Obviously having been organised with precision, the street lights all around were then extinguished for a 20 minute period, whilst an extravagant display of fireworks lit up the city. What this must have cost I have no idea, as the amount of fireworks used was incredible, with 5-10 constantly going off for the whole 20 minutes.

After this, wandering back along the marina, we decided to pop into the Bar du Pont again in the hope of catching last orders. Whilst there however, the owner of the bar Serge, hearing us speak English, intorduced us to an English couple called David and Pamela also in the bar. As David was an avid rugby fan, and Serge showed no sign of shutting up shop, we remained in the bar till after 2.30am chatting with David, Pamela and other friends of theirs in the bar. All in all, a great Bastille Day, but with a 9am wake up necessary the next day, not much of a rest day!

N.B. Having trouble with connecting the camera, so photographs will hopefully follow shortly...