restaurant

Aureilhan pond

Thierry is an activist guide. From his other lives (Paris firefighter, trainer against computer excesses in schools, sand yachting instructor), he knows the strength of pedagogy. His desire? Change the look on electric scooters, bring people to these new soft mobility. Permanently – he sells his fully-equipped Tchanqu’à Roues – or temporarily: he offers rides around Mimizan, which is full of tracks, paths, trails and alleys where you can travel without a car.

Dawn makes this flowery walk, usually a little too colorful, mysterious

Suiting the actions to the word, it swoops at 45 degrees towards the forest. The cold pinches, despite the helmet, the gloves. We are trying to find our balance a little, but the pleasure of passing without difficulty from sand to pine needles and bitumen is total. A series of pavilions, allotments, soon heralds the “popete”, as the locals call it. Convinced that reindustrializing is not a bad word, Thierry is happy to go over the history of stationery, the region’s economic lifeblood, from which come the small kraft fruit and vegetable bags, the paper to bake your pies or wrap your biscuits, your bags of cement or kibble for cats! The Mimizan current is a stone’s throw away. Leaving from the Aureilhan pond and partially canalized, it makes a wide bend between pretty seaside villas and salt marshes. Even if we are technically on the Egret trail, herons and plovers are also out in the reed beds.

Coco Chanel

The current takes us to the ocean, where the east wind ruffles the mane of the waves. Thierry knows his slightest mood swings, because he was part of the French sand yachting team, a discipline he also teaches, Lespecier beach. He explains the fixing of the dunes, in front of the coconut fiber nets stretched for this purpose. Then, from Coco to Coco, go to 59, rue de la Plage, to show the house that Gabrielle Chanel had bought in 1929, when she lived a brief and intense passion with the Earl of Westminster. He was at Woolsack Castle. She in this big vacation home, which became a kind of camp for her staff. Models and seamstresses came to rest there between two collections, two parades. Dormitory rooms, no water except for a pump in the garden: it was spartan, but it was a form of paid leave before the hour which ended in 1931, with the love story of Coco.