We say au revoir to La France

Our last night in France for the time being, was in one of the best sites we have stayed at in France from a site positioning viewpoint. We stayed at Playa camping between St Jean de Luz and Guethary along the coast from Bayonne, France. The camping site was on the terraced side of a cliff above a private beach on the Atlantic coast. There were approx. six camping grounds in the area on the cliff top. We fell asleep to the sounds of the Atlantic waves breaking on the beach below us.

Photo 0063, our private beach on the Atlantic!

We say good bye (temporarily) to France after four or so weeks of touring in our campervan (camping car in French terminology) wandering the French countryside. We have now crossed into Spain on the Atlantic coast and visited Bilbao. It is a large city and an interesting mixture of old and new, with many motorways and tollways ringing the city but yet a preserved old town centre. The main tourist attractions are the Guggenheim museum on the riverfront and the old town.

Photo 0087, one of the streets of Bilbao

 Dorothy visited the Guggenheim museum in the afternoon.   Whilst Gary walked the new and old towns, photographing the many buses, trams and trains.

Photo 2177, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao with its striking architeture

We found a camping site/ camping car rest area in the hills above Bilbao with views of the city and valley to die for:

Photo 106, view from the campsite at Bilbao

After our evening meal we caught the local bus into Bilbao, a journey of about 40minutes.  It was interesting to watch the locals came and go.  Bilbo bus is operated by Vieola Transport, the parent company of Connex (those in Melbourne and Sydney will recognize those company names). We then walked the narrow atmospheric streets of the old town. All the shops were closing up at 20:00 but all the restaurants and bars were just opening up for the evening meal etc. We found a bakery with some delicious desserts which we just had to try and they certainly tasted as lovely as they looked. Then it was time to catch our bus back to the camp site, really a tour of the suburbs of Bilbao for the princely sum of 1 euro 20 cents per person, each way. 

Photo 99 of Bus in narrow street, Bilbao

Now from our campervan window we can enjoy seeing all the city lights of Bilbao.  We are sharing this camping site with 1 other campervan, there are 80 other empty spaces so we guess (hope) things get busier in the July/August high season months.

Since composing this post we have moved on and are now in Porto, Portugal. But more of that in the next post, WIFI willing to be found!