In La Baule

Our second day in La Baule dawned slightly warmer than the first. Still not what one looks for in the hopes of sunbathing and cavorting in the ocean, but decent. Now that we had left the hectic life of Paris behind us, our main goal in the mornings was to make sure we made it down before breakfast ended. Which we did. All the hotels here either include breakfast or at least offer it at a reasonable cost. The Majestic had it's own dining room so the breakfast buffet was extensive...as though anyone needs anything more than croissant and hot chocolate or coffee.

For what remained of the morning we decided to head down to the far end of things and then do some wandering on the way back.

The beach is huge. Very long. I find conflicting information on how long it is. The part bordering la baie du Pouliguen that you see in the picture looks to be 5 or 6 km long. Maybe the longer estimates include the parts around the point past the yacht club at the east end. The beach road is largely lined with condo buildings. Apparently the Parisians come and go for week or month long stays all summer and the Nantais make day trips. Despite the lovely beach and not at all tacky town attached, Wikipedia says the area is still largely unknown outside France.

La baie du Pouliguen. Wow that's a long beach. The Majestic is near the left end.

So as we see from the giant beach, too far to walk down to the Pornichet end. Well, too far for the littler legs. Far enough that Pornichet is actually a separate town. Thankfully they have a Petit Train! Also largely unknown outside France (ok, I'm guessing) the Petit Trains seem to be all over the place. We saw them in at least 4 or 5 other towns we drove through or stopped in.

Le Petit Train. In La Baule it runs along the beach front boulevard from right
near the Majestic to the yacht club at the Pornichet end. This was at the far
end where there is a short break while the driver goes to pick up his lunch (of
baguette avec jambon et fromage naturellement).

Abord le Petit Train.

From the far end. Wow that's a long beach.

Some crazy condo buildings. Oh the things you see. I half expected the
 Jetsons to come wandering out. 

We took the Petit Train back to somewhere around the mid-point and started walking. We stopped for lunch at yet another créperie/pizza place. After a time, the sun came out. It was lovely. Not hot, but lovely.

Wow, look how long the beach is.

A la promenade come les Parisiens en vacances.

After lunch we split up again. Alex and Zita went in search of shopping excitement while Dunc and Clara and I headed back to the Majestic to change for the beach.

The construction crew was hard at it again.

When the tide is out, the lower part of the beach is covered in little shells.

Dunc and Clara call this part of the beach "The Mucky Madness".

That evening we found another little beach side restaurant for dinner. Clara branched out with chicken nuggets again. Dunc however had a piece of pan fried fish with sautéed vegetables. He's a good eater. Who knew his favourite dessert is boule de glace framboise? And they always have framboise along with at least 6 or 8 other flavour choices. Also, pretty much every restaurant we went to in France had some kind of a kids menu. Most had a choice of mains of steak haché with frites, jambon with frites, or nuggets de poulet with frites. It was unclear if everyone had simply decided to cater to the north American tourist's children or if French kids are now no more adventurous than kids from elsewhere.

Tomorrow we are on the move again. Better beach front weather to come!