Le Pont de Mai by the Sea: Weekend at Meschers, Gironde

We celebrated the May 1st weekend at a big birthday party for Pierre's friend/mentor, Laurent, in a picturesque fishing village on the Gironde estuary just north of Bordeaux. May is one long férié in France, a string of back-to-back holiday weekends called "les ponts de Mai." (May 1, or Labor Day, fell on a Tuesday this year, hence the obvious need for Monday to be declared a holiday. Likewise, May 8-- the holiday to celebrate the Victoire of 1945-- falls on a Tuesday, inspiring most French citizens to take Monday as a vacation day, creating the "bridge" between the weekend and national holiday.)

These long weekends are characterized by spectacular feasts, plenty of sun-bathing, animated political debates, and all-around merriment. Upon our arrival on Monday, after a serious sand castle competition (our team won with a mini Egyptian pyramid, replete with a mysterious, crouching Sphinx-- aka Pierre-- who queried the birthday boy with impossible riddles), we picnicked on the sand. It was a really indulgent luncheon. Bottles of wine and local Pineau were kept cool in a small pool of fresh water at the base of the cliffs, from where springs trickled down the rock face. We ate bbq'ed mussels, salads, saucisson, quiche... (The platters of mussels were cooked right on the beach beneath flaming piles of pine needles.)

A word about Meschers: While tour buses descend upon the Médoc for tasting Bordeaux's celebrated wines, the small villages on the other side of the estuary, where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers converge and dump into the Atlantic, remain untouristed and quaint. From the beach (pictured), we could gaze across at Pauillac on the facing shore. The rock cliffs seem to soar above the sea. For centuries, people have inhabited the caves carved into these cliffs, including groups of persecuted Protestants. There is even a restaurant built into the rock at Meschers, its windows facing out onto the rising tides. And today, people still live in the cliffs! We enjoyed a boat excursion out on the water, from where we could see the windows and doors of houses opening from these cliff-walls, just inches above the rolling waves. The waterfront is distinguished by docks and colorful fishing houses typical of the region (pictured); nets are rigged at the end of the docks and suspended into the sea.