This post is the second of two parts covering our stay in the Bassin d’Arcachon area and the things we got up whilst we were there. As the name of the area may suggest, the Bassin d’Arcachon’s main town is Arcachon which sits at the south-west corner of the bay, on the eastern side of the inlet where the bay meets the Atlantic.

Having caught the TER into Bordeaux Saint-Jean, we headed outside the station to catch one of the city’s trams. With four lines spanning the city, Bordeaux’s tram network is a great way to get around and a TBM day ticket can be purchased for €5. These tickets cover unlimited use of the trams, as well as the city’s buses and water buses and so really are a bargain.

Having made our way from London to La Rochelle via Paris, we had collected our hire car and driven a couple of hours south to Le Bassin d’Archachon (or Arcachon Bay) which is around 45-minutes from Bordeaux. With a base in the village of Le Teich for just over a week, we were well placed to explore the local towns as well as the wider region.

Arriving in Paris Gare du Nord onboard Eurostar, we had just over 24 hours in the French capital to explore and see the sites before we were due to catch a TGV to La Rochelle. However before we began exploring, we needed to make our way across the city to Montparnasse to drop our luggage at our hotel. 

Following what had felt like a longer travel day than most, probably not helped by the hour delay to my flight, I arrived in Košice later than planned and so my explorations of Slovakia’s second city started in earnest the following morning.

Having arrived at the City of Derry airport following a delayed but enjoyable flight with Loganair, I was looking forward to heading into the city to explore. Unfortunately, public transport connections are pretty non-existent with a bus every 2-3 hours which does not link up with flight times and would have departed six minutes before we landed if we’d been on time