60 - Another change of scenery - Bayonne, Castets, & San Sebastian

 Monday, April 22 - Castets

Check out went smoothly in Soustons this morning.  I loaded my stuff up into the car parked 10 ft away and put the key into a lockbox the hostess had given me to attach to the fence near the post box.  So long, Soustons, I'm trading in your quiet lake atmosphere for the bustling city!

A last look at the complex.  Someone is very proud of their Canadian flag

Contactless checkout, complete!

It was a quiet day at work.  More numbers crunching (I keep calculating more heat than is theoretically possible during one phase) but had a group call to finish the day that gathered a consensus of what parameters to tweak for the next batch.  

Spotted this moth on the ground.  Maybe it smashed into a window too fast or the wind just blew it here?

In the evening, I left the office and headed to Bayonne.  My host had recommended an underground parking garage which was definitely secure and only a 5 minute walk.  I'm glad I only took one suitcase at a time cause the narrow staircase might be an original.  My new hostess showed me around the place; it definitely has charm but I think I had misinterpreted the perspective of some of the pictures.  Big pro: the apartment has a view of La Rhune framed by an old Gallo-romaine watchtower.  Pro: the apartment has wifi.  Con: I'll need to use the parking lots nearby for my car.  Big con: the bedroom is only 3 feet tall (1m) and I'm a 6ft tall guy (1.8m).

Third floor apartment, here I come!  

Just need to trim the tree a bit and it's a straight shot to La Rhune!

The stairwell is very worn but it doesn't creak or feel unsafe.

The shower should be a tight squeeze but should be manageable; I'm glad the tiled wall is there to block the portrait, I'm not quite so exhibitionist that her stare wouldn't disconcert me a little.

So it looks to be a bit of a tight squeeze in the loft/bedroom

After check-in and settling in, I went for a walk around the town, delving into a section I hadn't really seen before.  Turns out there's a university on the other side of the Nive river.  

I like how they converted a rampart fortress into a place of learning

Pretty snazzy decoration for the campus library

I was trying to get the sun between the steeples of the cathedral but this was the best I could manage.

There was definitely enough wind to keep the flags across the Adour look lively.

Had dinner at a restaurant that included "fancy dining" in its description; to it's credit, it was pretty dang fancy. 

I would've never thought to combine asparagus with clams

At first I thought they'd given me a really dull knife, my rhumsteak was so hard to cut.  Then I realized that as I was choking up on the knife to apply more force that I was feeling a lot of pressure on my index finger: I was holding the knife backwards 🤦‍♂️ 

Dessert: sliced strawberry with a mouse strawberry.  I was really impressed with the dimpling effect they were able to replicate for where the seeds would be.

La Nive at night.

A pretty bright moon watching over Bayonne tonight

Managed to spot the Big Dipper; a very different frame composition compared to the pictures I got in Soustons!

Tuesday, April 22
I had a bit of a late night encounter last night. Just after I finished showering, I heard a knocking at my door. After quickly throwing on some clothes, I answered to door to discover an old man in pajamas. He was on the floor below me and had woken up from my shower because a bit of water had dripped onto him 😅. He didn't seem mad, he just wanted to let me know (he was expecting my hostess so I guess he wanted to let her know). With a gracious "bonne nuit" he returned to his floor and I (literally) crawled into bed.

In the morning, I messaged my hostess about the leak and bade her to speak with the neighbor and investigate the leak. Later in the afternoon, she messaged me that a plumber will be in tomorrow morning to seal a missed section of the shower. Apparently the bathroom was just recently renovated so maybe I just happened to find the unlucky angle to get water downstairs; I'm taller than her so that could make sense.

When I got back to Bayonne in the evening, I had a couple of objectives: try out a different parking lot and buy some groceries for a lunch (I expect to stay onsite tomorrow). I wanted to try an outdoor parking lot (as opposed to the indoor one I used yesterday) as I think the overnight tarif is cheaper (this morning was €14 at the sousterrain lot). The cost isn't particularly worrisome but I don't intend to charge it to the company, I figure the tolls and parking associated with staying in Bayonne are like a vacation cost for me. The outdoor lot is just as close or closer than the indoor one so I figure it's a way to cut down a bit.

For the groceries, I swung by one of the main drags near me (la rue d'Espagne). I got bread at a bakery (they were almost out of stuff since it was the end of the day), some produce from a small grocer, and a bit of cheese from a Basque chain called Etxio Peio. I'd grabbed a couple scoops of olives into a plastic container primarily for the container to bring a small salad to lunch tomorrow, but was pleasantly surprised at legitimately how delicious the olives were.

I hadn't prepped the lunch yet but I wanted to get out and do a walk of the city before the sun started to set. I made my way down another major street in the old town and crossed the Nive when I found one of the restaurant my hostess had recommended was closed for vacation. I remembered a cidrerie from my last visit to Bayonne on the other side of the Nive that had been too packed to attempt entering, so I decided to give it a shot for dinner tonight. Bon Sang, I'm glad I gave it a shot.

The cidrerie operates with large shared tables and benches, my party of 1 shared a table with a party of 8. The place has one menu: omelette, fish, meat, and dessert but the portions depend on the size of one's party. My plates were reasonable reductions of the party of 8's platters. But what really drew my attention as a fun quirk was the serve-yourself cider from two taps in giant barrels embedded in the wall! Cider was included in the meal so I got to partake in the ritual of opening the tap and inserting my glass to start filling or chasing behind someone's glass to catch the stream when they pull their filled glass away.

The catch pan on the ground barely had any liquid in it, I guess most people were quick on the draw for filling glasses.  For those who haven't tried it, Basque cider has a bit more of a tang / farm musk to it than the ciders I've tried in the US.  

The fish course; my serving for 1 was a nice cut of a fillet, the party of 8 had 3 whole fillets served to them.  

I liked the interior decoration featuring wood beams, basks, benches, bottles, and walnuts.

For dessert: a bit of Brebis, confiture, and walnuts (and cider).

Turns out cracking walnuts isn't as easy as I thought it would be; I ended up sifting through lots of pulverized shell bits for the flesh. 

One last pic for the road; I had a blast here tonight!

The atmosphere was lively, fun, and festive. I had a great time even if the place seems geared towards larger parties. The family next to were really sympas, when they got up to refill cider, they invited me along and wished me tchin-tchin / santé! I highly recommend a visit to a cidrerie Ttipia! (Groups should try to make reservations

ahead).

Wednesday, April 24

It was a long, busy but successful day at work.  I was a bit late getting into the control room since I haven't quite figured out the new commute but I was in time for the kick off.  

At lunch time, I received a message from my hostess saying that the plumber sealed the shower basin and that the seal would be set by noon, so hooray for getting to shower today!  When I got back to Bayonne, I started a load of laundry and went out to walk to the part of the city on the other side of the Adour river.  

I thought the clouds were so impressive as I was crossing the Adour!

Looking at the old town from the other side of the river, it looks a bit more like an important port from this direction.

For dinner, I stopped by one of the places my hostess had recommended, La Table Sébastien Gravé.  Turns out this was another haute cuisine experience; when I asked for a table for 1 they set me up in the kitchen!  The chef even popped by and gave me a surprise dish between the entrée and main plat. 

Everyone in the kitchen was really nice, taking a bit of time to wish me good evening.

The bustling kitchen!  I've never worked in a commercial kitchen before but I have played Overcooked! and I can see why organization and role definition is so important in the kitchen game. 

I wasn't exactly sure what "maquereau" was but the menu indicated it was from St. Jean de Luz so it was probably fish.  In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that it was mackerel. 

Thursday, April 25 - Castets & San Sebastian

The big thing at work today was to continue pushing the reaction to completion; I commend my colleague for piloting everything while I acted as an advisor on his shoulder.  A neat little discovery at work today was one of the visiting engineers from before was on-site to do some automation work.  

Also spotted at work today; hope your not eating parsley and garlic, that kind of diet can be poor for a snail's health in France

After work, I touched base with the visiting engineer about getting dinner together and he proposed something that hadn't crossed my mind: go to Spain.  He's a smoker and wanted to make a run down to Spain to buy cigarettes cheaper than in France; since I'm staying in Bayonne, he could pick me up and we could get dinner in Irun or even San Sebastian.  I wasn't going to buy cigarettes but that sounded like a great plan to me!  

Driving into Irun was like swirling down into a bowl; I've visited both Hendaye and Hondarribia before but never spent time in Irun.  After parking and finding the first two Tabacs he'd marked on the map as closed, we had a farily decent walking tour of the town and I think Irun felt like a nice place to live.  It had a good blend of new and old, it felt clean but not resort-like.  

We eventually found a Tabac that was open and he managed to save €200 on a couple cartons of ciagarettes.  Turns out there's a limit to how many cigarettes a person can bring into France before customs force French taxes on the cartons but he kept to his limit; technically, we could have two limits in the vehicle since I was a passenger but he'd still have to fly home with just 1 limit without risking a customs fine.  

Since he'd never been to San Sebastian, we decided to press on the extra 20 minutes so he could taste pintxos in probably one of the best places for them.  It took some finagling but we managed to park the car in an underground lot, admired the La Concha beach for a bit, and made our way into the old town for dinner.  

La Concha!  It was strange; it slowly dawned on me that I've spent more time seeing and doing things in the SW France and Basque regions of Spain than my colleague, who would fly back to Lyon for weekends.  So it gave a few tidbits about what I'd learned about San Sebastian over my previous visits.

Our eyes were almost bigger than our stomachs (turns out the French say almost exactly the same expression) but the pintxos were so good!  This place had 60 items, you'd mark your table and how many of which item you wanted; when it all showed up at once, we had a very impressive spread on our table.

This urchin item wasn't nearly as fishy as I'd expected and afterwards the urchin made a nice hairdo for the crab shell.  

Friday, April 26

We'd gotten home fairly late last night so I was glad I didn't have to wake up early this morning.  Still, I think I might be getting sick or something, I woke up tired and I had a slight headache.  

At work, we got the analysis back that we finally succeeded in getting on-spec material!  It was a day of doing victory laps while also finishing up notes and sharing commentary with the broader team.  At lunch, my colleague and I ate at Carines together, which was fun and I don't think I'd previously realized just how well-traveled he is.  

At the end of the day, I made my way back to Bayonne.  I was really tired but wanted to take advantage of my locations and booked a ticket to the cabaret theater I'd visited in January, La Luna Negra.  Instead of a musical group, this week's talent was a comedian.  My tiredness struck hard during the beginning of his routine and I fought to stay awake but eventually my energy levels came back up and I enjoyed the last 75% of his show.  He talked a bit fast (and emulated many different accents) so I didn't follow a lot of his jokes but I enjoyed it all the same.  His routine was about if famous works of art could talk, he kick of a set by striking and holding a pose for a few seconds; I didn't recognize many of the poses and had to use context clues for what art we were talking about.  

I took a quick walk around the ramparts of Bayonne before dropping my stuff off in the apartment.

And if works of art could talk?

Ready for the show!

After the show, I returned to the apartment where I had a quiet dinner-in featuring a jarred cassoulet.  I finished the night with dessert from a colleague at work.  Before I returned to the US, he'd asked me to bring a few pieces of American money for his children (dollar bills and dollar coins); even after paying me well over the exchange rate for $5, he also gave me a tourtierre pruneaux (a layered pastry flavored with prunes and armagnac)!  C'est trop gentille et si delicieux 😋

The tourtierre had a few prunes scattered around it, roughly spaced out for slices.  A warmth in my cheeks confirmed that I was definitely tasting armagnac too 😂