{"id":371,"date":"2009-06-01T09:38:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-01T15:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterstenhouse.com\/journal\/?p=371"},"modified":"2024-04-26T05:29:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T11:29:41","slug":"last-day-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterstenhouse.com\/journal\/last-day-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Last day in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Day 35. The 29th of may.
\nIt is inconceivable hot. It was a lazy day. Though I made an early start from my pine forest campsite, there were many interruptions along
\nthe way, to watch waves, and gauge if today I should try to surf. By one o’clock it is too hot, and thought I haven’t cycled far I stop, and erect my tent on the long beach near Ondres. Swim, eat, sleep, swim.
\nThe surf was small, but big enough, that I had a lot of fun diving through the waves as they broke, or turning my chest into a prow and surfing to shore with them.
\nI thought that the heat had relented as I cycled off. But I was wrong. Biaritz stunk like bitumen and crowded with people. It was sticky under tyre and through the air. Shirt stuck across back. Biaritz and its neighbouring towns have swelled to become one amorphous mass. They may have been nice towns once, but I saw no sign of it under ugly white facades, or behind the apartment blocks and hotels.
\nThe only good thing to come of it was the beer that I had at Les 100 Marches,, a clifftop bar that overlooked the ocean and the bazy hills. People spilled onto the promenade.
\nI can see spain from where I write and a great sunset. The day is still hot at 9. tommorow I have an early start to cycle there before the heat catches me.