France West Coast - any fans who can inspire me?

[TheSconeOfStone]

After a wet week in Brittany we'd like to head further south. I'd love to get to the Med but heat (we will be in our own tent) and distance with travel sick 4 year old are putting us off.

I'd like lovely swimming beaches but also interesting towns, castles, scenery to look at. The Vendee doesn't appeal so maybe further south.

Any recommendations would be great please.

How about Les Landes, the area SW of Bordeaux down to Biarritz? Both those cities are lovely in themselves and well worth visiting but for a longer stay maybe have a look at Arachon, Biscarrosse, Mimizan? Lots of camping round there I believe. Also lots of surfing.

Thanks. I'll take a look at those areas. Sounds good for a bit of body boarding. I expect the red wine is good down there too.

Arcachon basin is stunning. Great beaches. Lots of surf and lovely towns. We stayed twice at La Cigale site in Ares. It's fab.

We used to spend the summer here when I was a child. Sometimes we would stay here, but also used to do some wild camping in the forest (possibly no longer allowed). You would cross the road and walk over a huge sand dune to get to the Atlantic beach (huge waves), and for more sedate sea swimming you can go the Bassin d'Arcachon.

www.lesviviers.com/campsite-arcachon-bay-france.html

I wouldn't recommend staying next to the giant sanddune with a 4yo! Did it as a teenager and it was such a pain we moved to a site on the Basin d'Arcachon after 3 days - it is very high!

Arcachon does look great for sunshine and swimming. Warmth on holiday would be a novelty for us.

Biarritz and St Jean de Luz is lovely. We found this out after being rained on in Brittany once too often, we went to Les Mathes first (south of La Rochelle) which I loved, then Hossegor (which I wasn't keen on) then Biarritz which I loved. The journey (we drove and brought our own tent) was long but I've forgotten that part now, we brought our bikes and cycled everywhere. It was hot while we were there - I liked it as much as the med which would be dh's preference.

Any other recommendations for sites near Arcachon? Love the look of the location but La Cigale (which looks right up our street) is fully booked for the weeks we could go and Les Viviers looks a bit too big and busy for us.