Arrived at Pyla Sur Mer in the Arcachon Basin (just South West of Bordeaux) with all 4 wheels, chassis and surprisngly the rest of the Camper Van fully in tact and have experienced no further problems since the hydraulic failure and footwell collapse.... though Abi has used her talents at `misplacing` items to the max to find a unique place in the van to lose stuff; a small mobile phone size gap down the back of the cupboards seemingly inaccesible to anything larger than a mobile phone (which needless to say Ab managed to lose her phone down!). Fortunately after taking half the Camper Van apart trying to get at it we managed to find a hand size gap in the wardrobe and all is now well!
Anyway, that`s probably enough talk of furniture dismantling for one blog entry (who knows, there may be more to come!). Pyla Sur Mer was a stunning little place. We stayed at a fantastic camp-site on the side of the Grand Dune du Pilat (massive sand dune spanning several km across) with a view of the Ocean from our pitch and near perfect sunsets every night. What was intended to be our last week of luxury and relaxation before heading off east was just that - plenty of time spent on the beach, by the pool and visiting towns in the countryside.
Also went what could loosely be described as surfing; or more accurately described as spending an hour frantically trying to fight against a current to where the waves were actually breaking!

Our time in Arcachon was fantastic probably due to having Hettie along with us to laugh at..... sorry I mean with!