As a child, I spent all of my summer holidays at my grandparents’ in Lacanau. (/!\ warning, post heavy in photos)
It’s a place so dear to my heart, and going there rings “holidays”. There’s always family there, and the family has grown since I was 3. More cousins, more aunts and uncles and now, more houses. It’s such a great thing to have everyone spending holidays in different houses in the area. You’re always between houses, cycling, enjoying the lake, or the pool, catching up with different family members everyday, without the stress of everyone being in the same place all the time, which quickly becomes a burden for the hostess, aka my Mamette.
Leaving school unfortunately implied entering grown ups’ world which does not leave as much room for beach tanning and sailing as summer breaks used to. You have to find a job, you have to find an internship. Basically, you have to make the city your new holiday spot. Which is not always easy, especially if you’re busy working. Last week, I managed to find 5 days to fly away to Lacanau, and those 5 days were pure holidays. I got to read, relax, have indulgent breakfast eating my favourite bread in all of France.
My cousin Margaux is working in Lacanau océan this summer , the beach town of Lacanau. We are by the lake, so it’s another beach setting, but we love taking the car and going to the ocean (it’s a 10minute drive). We go get drinks there in nice fancy bars, there are game rooms where Robin and I killed Margaux and Lucile at football table, we go enjoy the ocean breeze and of course, enjoy some nice Italian gelato.
So this year Margaux got an internship in a new surfing school, Magic Surf school, run by surfer Adrien Valéro.
The other day, Louloute and I decided to go get her after work to then hang out around town. We had one of our sister fights so she didn’t speak to me the whole bus ride.
I enjoyed the landscape of my childhood holidays on my own while thinking of the best ways to make her laugh and make up.
I don’t know how well that worked out. ^^
We arrived early and let Margaux finish her shift.
I love L’océan so much; it gets crowded some time but it’s the place to go for some excitement – the lake side is more for relaxing. They decided to put up a massive ferris wheel this year but apparently, people don’t love it so much.
Shops are super cute, there are some really nice restaurants with view on the sea. The carrousel which we used to ride when we were so little is still running, with the same owner. We always caught Mickey Mouse’s tail and she sometimes would not let us catch it on purpose to give a chance to the other kids.
We were walking and I spotted a poster about the French patrol. They do a flying show in the sky, just above the beach every year and I just had to go as I’ve always missed it for whatever reason.
So the plan the next day was drive to L’océan and get some beautiful shots to share with you this beautiful show. It was absolutely amazing, and so impressive while incredibly dangerous at the same time. Planes, dancing in the sky 5 cm away from each other? Makes you scare for the pilots’ lives who are probably having the best time ever, free roller coasting in the air.
It was a long show and we had parked the car just as it started. So after the first round, we walked closer to the beach with the siblings.
While they were whirling around the sky all together at first, the middle of the show was more individual planes and small group, sometimes cool duos. (There’s no music, you just enjoy the sound of super fast planes flying at I don’t even know what speed and it makes it all the more impressive)
Everyone was silent, clapping once in a while.
Some of us were apparently allowed to enjoy the spectacle from the water.
The French flag was obviously inevitable, finishing on some amazing firework illusion.
Some of the scariest moments of the afternoon though:
It lasted at least 25 minutes, and it’s so worth seeing! I totally recommend it if you ever come to Lacanau or you know about another French patrol show elsewhere in France.
It was quite hot though, standing in the sun, being amazed at the pilots’ flying skills. Next stop was my favourite ice cream place in the whole world (The ice cream may not be as good as real Italian gelato you get in Italy, but I’ve been going there since I could walk): Gelato Familia.
We walked past some lovely beach shops and spotted the crazy queue. Didn’t matter, we waited.
Plus, waiting in the line leaves you time to choose what flavours you’re going to get, and believe it or not, I never know what I want until I am facing the guy and everyone else is waiting for me. ^^
They had really cool flavours this summer: Fior di latte, White chocolate and hazelnuts, Cinnamon, and don’t get me started on their sorbets!
They also do this amazing swirl thing when you get 2 scoops (and why would you not?), better looking than anything the machine does.
I had a mix of nuts gelato (pecans, peanuts and hazelnuts; what else?) and some black current sorbet which is probably my favourite sorbet from them.
Last week was such a nice break from England. I love London, I love Oxford, but you “gotta have roots before branches” and having moved around the world my whole life, not growing up in the same place, Lacanau is definitely where I have my bearings, my home.
I flew back to the big smoke on the Sunday, with a less fun feeling than the French patrol must have had, but with the great memory of their drawings in the sky.
