France - part 4

On our way to find a good sandy beach we drove through Biscarrosse town, and spotted this hydroplane on the first roundabout as we approached the town. So the next time we drove through, I had the camera out and ready...

As well as the oil - and tourism, Biscarosse was also home to a big seaplane base and a lot of early hydroplane building and development, so on the one cloudy day, we spent the afternoon in the Musée de l'Hydraviation. They had a big barn-like building with some original and replica seaplanes, and then the main part of the museum was housed in a separate building. One room showed the development of the cockpit over the years - from the very early planes right through to Concorde.

The work and craftsmanship in the older planes was beautiful to see - wonderfully grained wood, brass. They must have been so heavy before all the lighter alloys came along.

It's hard to imagine that the seating in a plane ever looked like this! 

Before visiting the museum, we had gone to the Dune de Pyla (or Pilat) - the highest sand dune in Europe. We visited last year too, but the heat was so intense that it was not much fun. This time, on the coolest day of our time here it was much more enjoyable. We were not only able to climb easily to the first peak, but we walked quite some distance along it too.