I was hoping for a nice, last summer day at the beach.

This easy part was taking the train to the seaside, although I had to “splurge”
(… an additional €8 for the three of us!) on first-class tickets for the
return because second class was sold out—apparently, I wasn’t the only one
looking for… the summer.

Unfortunately, we didn’t find any sun, sand or summer.

“The Weather Network says it’s going to be a mix of sun and clouds, but Météo France claims it’s going to rain. Oh, for BBC weather is just… wait, they can’t figure out either, this morning it said sunny but now it’s rainy.”

My expectations weren’t very high, it’s been two months that summer should start any day now. Plan A for a sunny and hot enough day was swimsuit and beach. Plan B for cloudy weather was sandcastles and a walk on the beach.

Turned out we needed a plan C for high tide (so no sand) and rain showers.

It was a noisy jam-packed train trip to Les Sables-d’Olonne and the atmosphere was strange, everybody seemed to be on edge. Clearly, it wasn’t perfect summer—shitty weather, pandemic uncertainty.

We quickly understood swimsuits would stay in the bag and it was high tide, anyway, no sand left. So we explored the two, the long pier, the busy harbour. We even ended up at the art museum because in doubt, go to the art museum.

Not exactly how I was picturing our last Saturday in France but no regrets, we had fun.