My village Castets, surrounded by heather and pine trees

The church, close to our house

Castets, the village where I live, is a small village with 2000 inhabitants. It's not a sea side resort, like Moliets, Hossegor or Vieux Boucau, because it is situated nearly 20 km from the coast. When you pass the exit on the motorway you only see the industrial centre, which is ugly, so passing by will not make you make to visit! But if you happen to go there, you will find a nice village with a life all year along. The villages along the coast are full of people during the tourist season, but can be kind of spooky during winter, when many of the houses are shut down.

The town hall

When we came to settle down in Aquitaine, we were first looking into the Pays Basque region, but prices were really extravagant and we started looking further north. Our idea was to find a house somewhere between Bayonne, Dax and Peyrehorade, which is the most southern part of Landes, touching the Pays Basque. But a very smart real estate agent took us here and we fell in love with the house and the garden. I also liked that is was close to the highway, close to a train station and in between two airports. Actually, the emplacement of Castets is ideal for making day trips. It takes us an hour to go to Bordeaux, an hour to San Sebastian in Spain, 1 hour 20 minutes to Pau and 30 minutes to Bayonne. I also love being close to the beaches and having lakes nearby. Castets is a great place to live.

Hiking among the pine trees

If you want to stay here, I recommend the Maison Bitche, a manoir style house in a parc with pool. Or if you want to be in a really quiet place in the middle of pine trees, try the Gahoun a couple of kilometers outside of Castets.

The photos are courtesy of the Tourist offfice of Castets - a good place to get information about current events. They are very friendly and helpful!