We spent Tuesday morning waiting around the house for Dale’s luggage, then gave up around 2:00 in the afternoon after having the AirFrance customer relations agent say, just before hanging up on me with this curt response to my inquiry about the status of our luggage: “KLM and AirFrance have sent your luggage out for delivery. We have no way to contact the delivery service and do not know when your luggage will be delivered. We apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice day. Au revoir.” Click.

Our savior, Nico, took up our case and agreed to guide the baggage delivery service to a neighbor, if the call came while we were away. So, off we went to explore the coast to the south.

This part of the French coast is known to have some of the best surfing beaches in Europe. I don’t doubt it. Here’s the surfing beach at Hourtin Plage:

I took these photos from the top of the dunes that line the shoreline.

The surf seemed to get better the further south we went. At Carcans Plage, there was a surf school and several surf shops renting and selling surfboards, wetsuits and other paraphernalia.

Again, we hiked up the dune to get a view of the surf. There were several surfers out in the line-up, all in full wetsuits. Nico lent me his surfboard, a 6′ 6″ tri-fin (I used to use a 6′ 10″ single-fin spear), and wetsuit. I’m hoping to go out later in the week, although it’s been a long time since I surfed with a wetsuit on. We’ll see.

We headed back down the dune…

…and grabbed an ice cream cone before continuing the drive along the Route des Lacs past the lakes, Lac d’Hourtin-Carcans and Étang de Lacanau, then headed back home to Grayan for a home-cooked meal.

Surprise! The neighbor, Claude, came over with Dale’s backpack when we arrived. Dale is now a happy camper!