62 - Labor and Leisure - Bayonne, Castets, Biarritz, & Sare

Monday, April 29 - Bayonne

There was some excitement this morning. Around 3:30 AM, I woke up. It seems someone within a block had decided to blast club dance music; oddly, that wasn't what woke me up. Instead, someone else seemed to have been roused before me and decided to take matters into their own hands. He must've opened up his window and imagined that his yells of "TERMINER!! AIEAIEAIEAIE, TERMINER!!" were overpowering the music. I'm guessing a somewhat more effective good Samaritan called the cops to resolve the noise because the music eventually subsided and I returned to my slumber.

It was a subdued day at work; since Labor Day (at least, European Labor Day) lands on Wednesday, testing activities are taking a back seat to catching up on analyses, month-end tasks, and hosting my boss' boss. I've been looking forward to his visit because he was waiting to meet to discuss to any level of detail a schedule for the rest of my time in Europe.

After catching him up on the progress at this site, we have landed on a rough time frame (he still needs to confirm what paperwork is required) of remaining in SW France through the end of May to support this project and then start of June: Geneva.

After work, I offered a few suggestions for dinner; afterall, I know of few decent places near his hotel in Dax. But when he heard that I was staying in Bayonne, he said he's never been so we decided to have dinner in Bayonne. It was kinda strange to give short walking tour of the centreville meting out info based on what I've gleaned from plaques scattered around town and my visit to the Basque Museum. He commented that the look of the old buildings was reminiscent of the north east in France, like the Alsace province.

It being a Monday night, not all the restaurants were open and I didn't want to disappoint his palate with an unknown place, so we ate at Goxoki, where I'd eaten the previous Monday. It was fun getting to know him a bit more and his prior experiences, this was by far the most intimate discussion I've had with him. He was interested in how I liked my time here both professional and touristic and recounted a time that he, a Swiss, found himself sorely missing good bread and cheese while doing a graduate degree in upstate NY.

After a pleasant dinner, we parted ways till Tuesday. I relocated my car from the river parking lot (closest to the restaurant) to the Porte d'Espagne lot closest to my apartment. Then I took one last night time stroll around the centreville before packing my suitcases and calling it a night. I'm hoping to be out of the place tomorrow around 8:30, we'll see how moving the bags down the stairs goes. I've really enjoyed my time here in Bayonne: it's a great city with plenty of life, great food, interesting sites, and a hub-like location. That being said, I won't miss <1m tall bedroom nor the odor of kitty litter emanating from beneath the kitchen sink; the apartment definitely had charm but I can't see myself being a full-time resident in that building.

I remember seeing this canopy less full of leaves the first time I visited Bayonne in winter.

Tuesday, April 30 - Biarritz

It took a bit longer to load the suitcases into the car than expected but I'm moved out of Bayonne. It was another subdued day at work, my chef would be returning in the afternoon and most of the others had meetings in the morning. I spent my morning making plans and amendments to my original itinerary based on the timeline my chef conveyed to me. This involved looking up accomodations in the Landes / Pyrénées Atlantiques région through the end of May and thinking a bit more about how I wish to take spend that time.

In the afternoon, my chef arrived and we had a late afternoon tour of the plant for him. It was an interesting tour for me because it was the first tour that the site has been able to breathe a bit and speak in more detail about the other processes on site.

After work I made the drive down to my new apartment for the next few days in Biarritz. The place is located just around the corner from the Musée Asiatique and just a few minutes away from the main hub. A quick jaunt along the beach revealed that I wouldn't be observing le coucher de soleil ce soir so I turned inland and made my way to a restaurant recommended by a friend very familiar with Biarritz.

Checkin at the new place was a breeze and my door was closest to the entryway

These are some interesting blinds, they give one a lot of control over how much shade to make (aside from the light coming around the side)

I'm still getting used to tall the different window cover technology here in Europe, these were a first to me.

The first local to welcome me in Biarritz, un hérisson!

Made it to the Grand Plage, less than a 10 minute walk!

The clouds mean I won't get a sunset view tonight, but they make for an impressive vista

Turns out the restaurant is a cidrerie, similar to the one I'd visited in Bayonne. Weird, maybe I need to make cidrerie Tuesdays a thing; though it's got some tough competition with the current reigning champ of tacos.

This place had stools instead of solid wooden benches but the atmosphere was still very convivial.

They had 3 ciders to taste à volonté

They served a lot more beef here and it was very good

Dessert of cheese and walnuts, I've gotten much better at cracking walnuts!

The charcoal grill for the beef

Walking by the bush was like walking into a wall floral aroma, I'm not sure what the name is but my nose wasn't complaining.

Wednesday, May 1 - Sare & St Pée-sur-la-nivelle

Ah, what a glorious day to celebrate Labor Day. May 01 is when the Europeans le fêtent so with the office closed I intend to l'en profiter. Malheureusement, the weather isn't too cooperative: the forecast is rain all day with just enough anticipated precipitation that it can't just be shrugged off with a raincoat.

Situations like these call for shelter from the elements, so I decided to seek some of the oldest shelter known to man and reserved an afternoon tour of les Grottes de Sare (the caves of Sare). But first, I slept in 😆

Before leaving for Sare, I swung by Les Halles de Biarritz. This time, I was ready to navigate the stalls and make mes achats. I came away with cheese, sliced meat (jambon de Bayonne and ventreche de la maison), asparagus, gariguette strawberries, and gooseberries (les groseilles). Oh, and bread, but that almost goes without saying.

Les Halles were bustling but I feel I had more breathing room than prior visits.

With my first bite of the ventreche, I realized it was supposed to be cooked 😅 so a few minutes later, I enjoyed my pan fried ventreche (like marinated bacon), some goat cheese, and berries for lunch.

I made it to the caves with a few minutes to spare before my guided tour. The caves are only accessible via guided tour and the tour features 6 stops. Turns out cave acoustics aren't wonderful so I didn't understand much of the guide's explanations but enjoyed the cave all the same. We had the fortune of seeing a few bats periodically fly overhead while heading to bed.

One of my first days at university, we had a comedian come on campus for a show. He asked the crowd about some interesting things about our campus. Having just learned about Sybil's Cave located at the foot of the campus's cliff (which served as the subject of an Edgar Allen Poe story), my friend and I shouted out "Sybil's Cave!" Per the comedian, all he heard was a bunch of engineering students yelling "cave". Still to the day, I periodically get the urge to simply yell "Caaave!"

This grotte was used by neolithic hunting parties, but likely only the very front areas.

More cave carving action in progress

A pretty cool cave! Per the museum exhibit, it has a long history for the area: smugglers, coin counterfitters, akkelare rituals, imperial tours, and shelter for soldiers.

After the tour I took some time to review the museum and the exhibit about dolmens and megaliths. I hadn't given these sorts of things much thought before but I suppose burial rituals are a topic worth studying for archeologists.

A dolmen; the Basque preferred keeping the (I think the east face) open/more accessible to cache bodies inside.

What the dolmen looks like with more dirt piled around.

From the caves, I spent a bit of time walking around the centreville of Sare. It had a nice view of the peak of La Rhune but not too much else; theres a museum about les Gâteaux Basques in Sare but it's only open one day a week, and it ain't Wednesday.

The centreville of Sare. Tatin!

I thought it strange this path just suddenly stopped being a car route, but I suppose some of these roads existed well before the automobile

This walk reminded me of climbing the ramparts at St Jean Pied de Port: stone walls providing privacy to backyards.

Ooh, you can make out the peak of La Rhune from here!

He's all tuckered out from foaling around

The pockets / sponges of color these flowers provided to the stone wall were quite appreciated.

Inside the church of Sare; I wonder if this is a usual Basque region design. It is similar to other ones I've seen in Basque country.

Despite a fairly plain hall, the altar is getting a little fancy.

Adieu, Sare!

From Sare, I swung by the small town of St Pée sur la nivelle as well. This was another tiny town that didn't have much to walk about and had a few views of the mountains.

A fountain for pilgrims headed / returning from Santiago

Plane trees in the centreville, or at least all three blocks of it.

Another view of the summit of La Rhune

The design of the house caught my eye, but the tiled patio around the whole house got my attention

After returning to Biarritz, the weather finally cleared up and I had an sunset stroll along the coast before dining in the old port.

Looking out to La Côte Basque from north of Villa Belza

I'd never walked to this part of the city before so this was my first time seeing Villa Belza up this close

Looking to le rocher de la vierge from the little beach.

Almost sunset for le rocher de la vierge

Whoa, a double rainbow across the sky!!!

Mince, a giant cloud is blocking out the sunset!

Some bulots to start dinner!

Thursday, May 02 - Biarritz

I spent the morning following up on changing my travel arrangements based on my Tuesday discussion with my chef^2. A call with the company travel agent changed my flights and my hotel booking, but I needed to contact the car rental office directly to ask for an extension. I couldn't get the car pushed all the way to the end of May, but I did get it pushed to return May 08 when I'm looking to drive to Bordeaux anyways.

I had a bunch of afternoon meetings and ended up getting home fairly late. Still, the season and daylight savings time left me with plenty of daylight so I turned right around and headed out the door. I managed to catch sunset at the lighthouse and had a glass of wine from the bar at the foot of the lighthouse. Clouds on the horizon blocked the true sunset but I enjoyed the fading light all the same. Dinner was at home with the remainder of Wednesday's grocery run: ham, cheese, and berries.

Looking good, grand plage!

There were some surfers packing it in around this time

A hole in the wall I found wandering the paths on the cliffs to the lighthouse. It smelled like people had burned something inside.

Made it to the lighthouse!

We can see La Rhune, Les Trois Courronnes, et Jaizkibel this evening

I think I've had enough to drink, I'm seeing double!

Bon soir, le soleil!

It's getting dark, I guess I'll head home

Friday, May 03 - Dax

I managed to load up my suitcases and made it into the office shortly before a meeting to discuss next week's plan. I liked this apartment, it was a short walk to the cool stuff in Biarritz AND I could stand up in my bedroom 😂 My hours next week should be fairly reasonable compared to previous equipment tests but I won't say it'll be easy just yet.

In the evening, I made my way to Dax. I'd booked the hotel so many of my colleagues have stayed at for the next week or so; partly to simplify things (I'd begun to spend waaay too much time searching AirBnb) but also to have a location close to the office for when we have the equipment test running next week. Even if I don't like the hotel, it's not like I'll really be in it that much: next week also includes several bank holidays and I've got some ideas of a vacation brewing in the back of my head.

Dinner was at a place I hadn't tried before. It's significantly less fancy than I thought it'd be but definitely still delicious 😋. The place, Les Terres de l'Adour, seems to focus on local ingredients and dishes. In my case, that meant duck.

Creme brulée in an orange for lunch at Carine's