Will Biarritz be empty next year?

I’m always interested to see which places and regions in France people are planning to visit in France in the months to come, partly because it gives me at least a clue which areas we should be visiting ourselves – there’s no point us spending weeks exploring and writing about the Pyrenees if everyone else is more interested in visiting the Alps…

So I’m pleased that this year I have a new way of forecasting the future – and I can tell you that so far it’s not looking good for Biarritz and south-west France!

On the main francethisway site people planning a visit to France can create their own travel plans, which include the places they hope to visit – a sort of  ‘personal favourite places’ list to refer back to later on in the holiday planning process.

Individually these don’t tell me much: Mr A might be planning a week in Brittany and Mrs B a week in the Auvergne etc. But when I look at them all together they should give quite a good indication of where in France people think they would like to go next year…and the results coming in for 2011 plans are moderately predictable, but not quite as expected.

…the whole area in south-west France between Bordeaux and Biarritz (including some of the best beaches in France, if you’re interested), is on nobody’s planning! Arcachon, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, numerous great sandy and surfing beaches, are all in danger of standing empty next year!

Perhaps things will change in the New Year when more people start planning, but if not it’s clear that Biarritz is the place to go in 2011 if you want to stay in a great part of France without meeeting too many other tourists! (well, English speaking tourists at least, since it’s them that use the site most).

It’s also interesting how many people have included the towns that fall between the Dordogne and Provence regions – personally I love the areas around the Gorges du Tarn etc but I thought they were relatively undiscovered. Seems I’m wrong!

Anyway, I’m almost certainly not reliably near internet  for the next week or ten days so a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS to anyone who happens to read this, and see you before the New Year. Have a good one!