What to do when there is no surf in Hossegor…

Hossegor is renowned for its surf scene; people of all ages skating or cycling along the streets as though it was rush hour in London, only instead of suits and briefcases; board shorts and surfboards. The miles long stretch of beach makes it a great place to stay for plenty of famous surf spots.

However, in the rare instance there is no surf for a few days people don’t seem to know what to do with themselves. Whilst we were parked up next to the Dunes we were approached by a dutch gentlemen dressed in Hawaiian board shorts, Oakley sunglasses and an unbuttoned shirt. He asked us “What is there to do here when there is no surf?” As we were suffering with the same predicament we decided to explore the other options the beautiful seaside resort had to offer. There is a large lake, where you can hire sailing dinghies or relax on the beach. The great expanse of the Landes forest lies behind the town and is popular for horse riding, hiking or cycling. There is also a popular skate park, tennis courts and Golf resort.

We explored the resort on our bikes. We brought our own, but you can hire them out for the day if not. Hossegor is connected to the towns Seignosse and Cabreton making them almost one continuous resort. So, to cycle or skate along the coast road is very accessible especially as the cycle lanes are just as wide as the road. This means in the height of summer you won’t be battling with the lost tourists in there big motorhomes engulfing the little lanes. You are also able to ignore the ridiculously confusing one way systems around the town.

The houses in Hossegor consist mainly of extravagant mansions set back amongst the trees. Every street can start to look quite similar; shaded by tree canopies and bordered with high stoned walls. This being said the eclectic mix of modern and traditional architecture built in the local Basque / Landes style is interesting to look at and envisage yourself sat on the balconies drinking Pimms and listening to Jack Johnson after a long days surf.

If you head into the centre there are lots of shops, bars and cafes to keep you entertained. We had a funny encounter when we went for a beer at the ‘Le Paris Cafe’ on the corner of the square. As we went to order a drink a lady behind the bar shouted ‘No card, go get cash’. Beguiled with her abruptness we headed over to the cash point. On return to the cafe we were distracted by a beautiful jewellery shop. As we were wandering around the shop we were startled by a lady tapping on my friends shoulder. It was the same lady from the bar looking angrily at us both. She said we had to return to the bar immediately and pay for the beer. Extremely confused we followed her back like naughty school children. She thought we had already had drinks and had run off without paying. However, she eventually realised the mistake she had made and looked very embarrassed. This being said the beer was great as we sat on the street and listened to a group of guys playing their guitar.

A couple of friends we met on a ski season were staying in Hossegor for the season, so we went to visit them. They said they had a slack line with them so we all decided to give it a go. Tying it to the trees I soon realised how difficult this was going to be. We drank beers and laughed at each others poor attempts at it; waving our arms and legs all over the place in desperate hope to cross it.

As evening approached we decided to head up to ‘Le Surfing’ bar for their famous nachos. There were four of us and only two bikes so with a little improvisation; me and my friend sat on the seats and the boys peddled. As we swayed and jolted along the coast road towards the bar people would point and laugh from their cars.

After nachos we raced down to the beach to watch the sunset. A few others joined us; one with his guitar and two others who later attempted all sorts of acrobatics on the beach. Sitting on the steps listening to the melodic soundtrack of the guitar, glugging wine from the bottle and throwing sticks for a stray dog that decided to join in was topped off by the backdrop of waves crashing into the shore and the sun sinking into the inky black sea.

So, when there are days without surf you won’t be stuck with things to do in the bustling seaside resort of Hossegor. All you need to do is get out of the car and explore!

DIY Turn your van into a Camper for free!

If you’ve been thinking about planning a trip away but have put it off because you would have to spend money and time converting your van then here’s how to do it for free.

I have a standard long wheel based VW transporter but this could be done in any van, bigger or smaller. I wanted to make sure once I had come back from the trip I could convert the van back to it’s original state so I had to plan a way around this and not drill any holes or fit anything permanently to the structure.

Firstly I took out all the chairs in the back so that it was an empty shell. I then found some old carpet from our house and cut it into the shape it needed to fit into the van. The carpet meant the seat attachments were covered and also gave it that soft furnished feel.

Then I needed curtains for the front, back and both sides. You can just buy window covers but to keep costs down I found some old second hand curtains, took out the thread from the top and cut them to the size of the side door windows. To attach the curtains I used some curtain wire (only £2 from any DIY store) and fixed them with hooks to the door panel. For the front I didn’t want to have to put up and take down a curtain from each window so across the width of the van behind the front seats I cut to size a curtain rail/metal pole and thread the pole through the seam of the curtain. If your curtain doesn’t already have a seam then you can fold the top of the curtain over the pole and either sew or staple it. For the back window I used velcro to stick the remaining curtain in but you could do the same as the others and have a curtain wire.

How we would make the bed proved most challenging. Usually you would make or buy a slatted structure or a rock n roll bed. However, rock n roll beds can cost around £150-£300 and a slatting bed structure would need drilling in to the van.

Eventually, we came up with the idea to use pallets. The only disadvantage to this is you can’t fold it away but you will still have storage underneath. We went out in search for the perfect pallets, starting in hardware store carparks to people’s back garden’s to finally finding what we wanted in a local garden centre. We found a long crate (2 m long) but if you can’t find one like this you can drill two smaller ones together. Our pallet wasn’t quite wide enough so we added two pieces of wood from an old fence in my garden to make up the extra. We then added legs (also from an old fence) and slotted the bed into the van. By having the legs you can store everything underneath and manage to fit the bed above the wheel arches.

Finally, we fitted in a cheap shelving unit to one side and using bungie cords we were able to store boxes with all your essentials.