This morning, I was up early to watch the AFL Grand Final between Hawthorn and Sydney. After a tense first 15 minutes when scores were close, the Hawks pulled away to demolish Sydney and win easily 137-74, thereby taking back-to-back premierships. Having followed the Hawks for over 50 years, I can say without a doubt that this was the most impressive display I have ever seen from them, especially considering the problems they had throughout the year with injuries and a serious illness for the coach. As the TV commentator said as the final siren blew, “The best team of the modern era ….. they’ve never been better than this”.

After coming down from cloud nine (a bit), we then went up to the Saturday Market to have our traditional noon coffee at the Abbey Square. While sitting there, we noticed a wedding at the Mairie office, and from the decorations on the wedding car, it looked like the bride and groom were also Hawthorn supporters.

We then decided to do something impulsive and different by driving west to the Atlantic Ocean. We had heard lots of good things about this area of France, so decided to go see for ourselves. After driving on scenic back roads for a few hours, we arrived at the coastal town of Biscarosse. Despite it being the start of spring, there were still lots of people at the beach. The atmosphere reminded me of the Queensland Gold Coast, about 30 years ago, but with less high rise towers.

Given the time of day, we made some enquiries about accommodation, but quickly found that there was nothing available in Biscarrosse, so I used the booking.com app on my iPhone to search for something in surrounding towns, and eventually found something in the town of Mimizan, about 40 minutes south. So we made a booking, then jumped in the car and drove south. Mimizan was totally different to Biscarrosse; more like the Gold Coast 60 years ago, with no high rise towers. It was much more to our liking, and very relaxing. We sat on the foreshore and watched the sun go down...

...before heading to a local restaurant for dinner and then returning to our quaint old-fashioned motel in a neighbouring suburb. A perfect end to a memorable day.