Although it has taken me months to write about our trip around the Hexagon up to this point, we’d actually been traveling for a week and a half: one night in Seyne-les-Alpes, three in Risoul, two in Annecy, one each in Amphion-les-Bains and Besançon, and three in Colmar. That summary, however, doesn’t include the 20 or so towns we visited near and between those places, so you can imagine that we were pretty tired. Continue reading
Travel
Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg
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| From a distance © LKL |
Originally named Staufenberg, this fortified castle was built by the Hohenstaufen, a German noble family, in the 12th century. The name changed to Königsburg (king’s castle) and eventually, in reference to its altitude of around 3,000 feet, Hohkönigsburg (king’s high castle), which was adapted in French to Haut-Kœnigsbourg.
6 corners of the Hexagon: Fourth corner!
The fourth corner of the Hexagon, at least according to the way we mapped out our trip, was the southwesternmost point of France. This is at the Spanish border, in the heart of Basque country, and the French side is Hendaye, one of the largest towns in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department. The beach is lovely, and from the languages we heard seems to be equally popular with swimmers and sunbathers from both sides of the border. The end of the jetty is the actual corner; to the left (south), across the water, you can see a bit of Spain.
Here’s our map between the third and fourth corners. As always, pink indicates our route as well as towns we actually walked around and/or ate in, while blue highlights where we stayed. You can click the map to see a much bigger version (MB).
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6 corners of the Hexagon: Basque country
After traveling almost constantly (one three-night stay, a few twos, but mostly singles) for about three weeks, ever since leaving Chinon, we were grateful to arrive in Guéthary, just north of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. We stayed in a little vacation apartment for a week and were able to catch up on laundry and even do some cooking.
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| St.-Jean-de-Luz © LKL |
Guéthary is tiny and cute, but Saint-Jean-de-Luz and neighboring Ciboure are truly lovely. We’d thought that it would be quick and easy to get there from Guéthary, but traffic was horrendous, even in September: there’s a toll road, but most people choose the free and therefore far more crowded Route Nationale. So we only spent one afternoon in St-Jean-de-Luz; it’s definitely on our list of places to revisit.
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| Petit train de La Rhune © LKL |
One of the best parts of the week was our trip on le petit train de La Rhune, a cog railway that ascends 905 meters to the top of the La Rhune massif and offers a spectacular view over Basque country.
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6 corners of the Hexagon: Atlantic Coast
Some of the most interesting places on France’s Atlantic coast are quite remote.
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| Quiberon © LKL |
We spent two nights on the presqu’île of Quiberon, in southern Bretagne. The beaches are lovely, and the town of Quiberon is kind of cute, but the others on the peninsula are nothing special.
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| La Flotte, Ile de Ré © LKL |
In contrast, Île de Ré, in Poitou-Charentes, is home to numerous cute towns (including two Most Beautiful Villages). We spent three nights in Sainte-Marie-de-Ré, and enjoyed talking to our hosts about the boom in housing and tourism that has occurred there since the car ferry was replaced by a toll bridge in 1988. Fortunately, there aren’t as nearly as many houses as there could be, as a lot of the land is covered in grapevines; as for the wine, however, c’est pas terrible.
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| Arcachon © LKL |
In Aquitaine, the small town of Soulac-sur-mer is filled with lovely, unique villas, as are a few streets in the much larger Arcachon. They both also have beautiful beaches and I can easily imagine living in either town for a year or two. A short drive from Arcachon is the Dune du Pilat – at 107 meters, it’s the largest sand dune in Europe. The climb up can be a bit difficult, but the view from the top is extraordinary.
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6 corners of the Hexagon: Third corner!
The exact location of the third corner isn’t obvious like the others. The westernmost point of France is l’île d’Ouessant, but we wanted to stick to the continent for the purposes of our hexagon. The westernmost point of continental France is Pointe de Corsen, which is considered the theoretical divider between the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: Pointe de Corsen, Terres celtes) In looking at a map of France, however, this point doesn’t exactly stand out. We feel that the part of Finisterre that pokes out just north and south of the Crozon peninsula is more corner-like, so we decided that those points together constitute the third corner.
The point to the north is Kermorvan, a small cape with a lighthouse near the town of Le Conquet, from which the ferries to île d’Ouessant leave. It was incredibly windy the day we visited, and one of our umbrellas, already fragile from Bretagne’s infamous weather, more or less self-destructed, leaving behind a naked skeleton with the ripped waterproof material flapping in the wind. It was a memorable visit.
Our second contender to the third corner crown was la Pointe du Raz, which turned out to be an internationally renowned, protected site, and was far more popular among hikers and picnickers than we’d expected.
Here’s our map from the second corner to the third, complete with detours to Paris and Loire Valley. Remember that pink indicates our route as well as towns we actually walked around and/or ate in. Blue highlights where we stayed. You can click the map to see a much bigger version.
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