45 - Tchin-tchin! - Biarritz

 Sunday, 28 January 2024 

Between jet lag and black out shutters, I was impressed my friend was able to rouse from the pullout couch with the sound of the coffee maker around 10AM.  We breakfasted on chocolatines and a mini gallette des rois (no token inside the individual portion size) and decided on a destination for the afternoon.  Looking at the forecast, we really had our pick of the litter since SW France was experiencing mostly sunny skies with temperatures almost in the 60s F.  While there were many options available, ultimately she was curious about Biarritz.  So with breakfast complete and a destination chosen, we packed up into the car and made our way south.  

The drive to Biarritz was different from my other trips to this city: farmer protests had shutdown the last few exits of the A63 highway and this required us to drive on some local roads from Bayonne to Biarritz.  It didn't add much time to the overall trip but if she hadn't realized that France really likes its roundabouts, I think she has an idea now.  

After parking in town, we made our way to la grande plage where the warm temps really made it wonderful to dip our feet and relax on the walkway in front of the casino.

Lots of people were hitting the beach today, many picnics were happening 

Les Americains sont arrivés

The shoreline was different than I'd seen it before, a combination of low tide plus mild waves revealed more of the rocks at the tide line

This was my first time seeing the calm, flat section of La Grande Plage

This dog's ready to picnic, even brought their own croissant

The guy who took our picture said my beret made me look more French than the French

A great view of the phare from here

Instead of making straight for the phare, we opted to head south along the coast.  This brought us past the old port and le rocher de la vierge before taking lunch.  The view of la cote basque and the spanish coast was superb from la rocher: humidity from the ocean spray tempered the sunlight and accentuated the primal forces at play between rock, wind, and wave.   

I don't think I'd seen the port at low tide before 

The breathing in and out of the water in the port was very marked: the level would swell with a huge influx and then a minute later it'd breath out and the sand at the bottom would be visible again.

I suppose an image search could identify what kind of flowers these are, but they're sure pretty

Villa Belza, Larrun, Les 3 Courrones, et Jaizkibel.

"Ok, this one's for the fellas"

Even for a calm day, there's a bit of mousse where the waves break

I think I missed the children playing here the last time I visited le rocher

Our walk had worked up a decent appetite, so we made our way past the little beach and found a nice restaurant to dine outdoors.  While browsing the menu, I noticed the woman at the next table was finishing up a duck leg confit; I asked her how it was and wasn't surprised to hear that it was good.  What was surprising was that she followed up with asking where I was from and when I responded "New York", she said "then we can speak in English, I'm from Tennesse."  I'm guessing that means my accent is still pretty pronounced 😂  Our lunch neighbor was an ex-pat from Tennesse who's been working in Paris for the past 4 years.  After studying bassoon in Tennesse, she did a masters in Music Business in France and has stuck around as an agent.  She was in Biarritz helping a DJ client last night and was returning to Paris later in the afternoon.  And here I'd thought there'd only be two Americans in Biarritz...  

Grabbed a couple cones for dessert, but the sorbet filled fruit looked tempting too

Afterwards, we walked through the downtown shops to windowshop while finishing cornets of ice cream.  I think it was jet lag that brought us to a cafe (it was chance that it was the Milwaukee cafe).  Surprisingly, we encountered some familiar faces from where we'd had lunch; or rather, two other people who'd sat behind me during lunch (one in a bright pink sweater) sat down at the Milwaukee cafe too.  They didn't have coffee; instead the girl said hello to the serveuse, her friend, then they walked down the block to a bar to have a beer.  We jokingly said "see you guys at the next place", but ended up joining them for a beer after our coffees.  

Turns out our two new acquaintances were off-duty gendarmes from Bordeaux enjoying the warm weather in Biarritz.  They convinced us to join them for sunset at the rooftop of a bar next to the little beach, Les Baigneuses, where they'd gotten some great sunset photos before.  It was a lot of fun conversing with them, learning about their life in Bordeaux (the farmers had blockaded Bordeax's centreville the previous week 😂), as well as small talk involving translation between French and English.  The ladies developed a pen-pal system of typing into google translate, which I thought was a pretty neat way to overcome the language barrier.  Ultimately, we ended up spending a lovely, warm evening on that roof top until parting ways around 9pm.  

La Petite Plage was getting much smaller at high tide; I was surprised to see the little seawall just getting plowed over by waves.

Turns out the upper level of the rooftop is only open for bar service in summer, but popping up for pictures was okayed by the staff.

Tchin-tchin! (Tapping glasses together in a toast results in a tchin sound in France versus a clink in the US)

The designated driver?

It was interesting to return to Biarritz as a host and guide rather than simply a visitor or guest.  The shore has been different every visit, the view is never quite the same.  And we had way more social encounters than I would've expected had I visited alone so I had a blast today.  I hope my friend feels she has an understanding of the town and can attest to others that it's well worth a visit.  She departs for Paris tomorrow; bon courage et profites bien!  Thanks for coming to visit, it was a lot of fun!