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Aquitaine-Dordogne |
The holiday homes rented out by Villagrande are mainly located in rural, non urban areas.
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"Wetland" as you would translate the name of the southwest region to the Bay of Biscay.
Lots of coastal area and of course the funnel-shaped mouth of the Garonne, the Bordeaux region, extending to the French Basque Country
with the most prominent place: Biarritz, all of this shapes the typical contour of France.
Many people find a vacation without the sea as an egg without salt.
Don't you find it remarkable that all posh coastal towns have emerged at the same time in the mid nineteenth century? Biarritz is no exception.
Before Victor Hugo in 1834 "discovered" it, it was a village carying a boat from a whaler in his shield. Empress Eugenie ordered to build a country house,
and later Napoleon III followed and in his wake "toutes" Paris.
It was the French who invented beach culture. We can not imagine now, but until the Baroque (mid 18th century) the sea was an area of death and destruction.
People found the sea smell and saw the water as a remnant of the flood. Only the poorest people lived there.
They ate bad shellfish and went to sea where so many died, where monsters lived. Safer shipping and the Romance ended this idea.
Waves were not scary but very beautiful and vibrant. The first who discovered the coast as a place to relax were the aristocrats.
They discovered the coast as a place of comfortable fun in contrast to the hectic urban life.
The image of the beach changed and became the place to be, of physical culture, health and overall wellbeing. In Biarritz history can be spotted on every corner.
The Aquitaine region is a somewhat forgotten area.
The foothills of the Pyrenees, the friendly town of Pau are less known than the more northern Dordogne, still regarded as one of the most attractive areas
in France by the overwhelming natural beauty, peace and unspoilt beauty. He who never saw the famous caves of Lascaux should certainly alight there in the
valley of the Vézère. Here in 1940 a large number of impressive, 15,000 years old cliff paintings were discovered.
But if you prefer a modern mural, you go to the CAPC, Museum of Modern Art in Bordeaux, housed in a former warehouse, which enjoys great fame.
The American graffiti artist Keith Haring painted the elevator shaft.
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