Monday, May 20
I set my alarm for this morning to be out of the house by 8; why the need to be out by 8? Because today's big ticket event is on a strict timeline: watching the Olympic Flame pass through Biarritz! I only needed to walk a few minutes to set up my spot on La Grande Plage for the Olympic torch to pass through. I was at the corner of the beach and the Hotel Palais!
I got my place, only had to elbow a few small children out of the way! Hopefully the drizzling stops so people put their umbrellas down; people can be so inconsiderate, I mean, how else is a 6ft tall guy standing right at the barricade supposed to see what's happening?
It had rained hard last night and was it drizzling when I got set up, but the rain stopped just as the motorcade arrived. Since we were on the big beach, the torch was exchanged a bit up the beach from me and there was some ceremony involving the torch bearer emerge from the waves with her surfboard. As far as the running of the torch, there wasn't much running but a speedwalk with her entourage. It was pretty funny to hear les enfants get riled up into a chant but with half of them marching to a different tempo.
I suppose crossing surfboards instead of sabers still makes for an impactful image as the torch bearer comes up from the water to collect the flame.
"Ma'am, I don't mean to alarm you but did you know that your umbrella is on fire?"
Security around the event was organized fairly well though it seemed people could get around the barriers if they asked and has a plausible reason, like having young children or having a fancy camera.
And like that, the torch was past me. There was a follow-up crew coming behind, someone was holding a lantern/brazier which I guess the backup flame in case of accidental extinguishment. From Biarritz, the flame will work its way north to Anglet, then south to St Jean de Luz; I was scratching my head about the route but I guess not every province is participating and thus those that did choose to host the torch have to vamp for time.
As the crowd dispersed, I thought about stopping by a boulangerie for a viennoiserie and a coffee but so did the rest of the world. So ultimately, I returned to the apartment where some rummaging revealed some coffee sachets left by the previous Tennant. I guess I must've gotten real curious because I also checked the freezer (no way coffee capsules would be there) and found ice cream cups left behind. Turns out the coffee sachets didn't fit the machine, so I ended up with half the grounds in my cup 😆
As I was pondering my next move, the clouds darkened and heavy rain started to come down. It was a good excuse to sit down and focus on my backlog of this blog as well as actually file a month's worth of receipts for reimbursement. Lunch was my Corsican lonzu plus some compote I'd purchased in Saliés de Béarn the other day.
The camera didn't capture it too well, but there were a lot of really fat rain drops coming down.
When my internet signal started getting funny, I took it as a sign to try my luck outside. Since it was still thinking about rain, I opted for a museum activity and visited Biarritz's aquarium. The Art Déco style of the place was really cool but only present in the areas between galleries. I feel I learned both more and less than expected from a visit to the aquarium: there were a few non-fish galleries about the city's maritime history as well as that of the museum itself. In terms of fun fish facts, I came away with seeing a few fish but I don't think I have an understanding of what fish are actually in the Bay of Biscaye or the estuary waters of the Garonne.
Not all the barricades were put away just yet, but the beach sure cleared up from this morning's crowd. The weather is still toying with the idea of more rain but it's a nice temperature out.
I'm recalling the French narrator from Spongebob episodes. "Ahhh, the sea: so fascinating, so wonderful"
These little guys look like they have beards!
How does the aquarium work? Simple! Just read the process flow diagram! And no snickering about the water getting sent to the seals.
A blue lobster / homard! The aquarium had displays that cycled through the various fish inside each tank; as great as it was to have the info available, I feel like the display was never showing the fish I was currently looking at 😅
The museum's art deco style really shined in some places, particularly around the stairwells. This had me thinking of the underwater city of Rapture from Bioshock.
The windows being tinted blue certainly helped to achieve an effect of being underwater.
La scaphandre, now that's a vocab word I probably wouldn't get in DuoLingo for many, many more lessons.
The exhibit of art deco posters developed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the aquarium was neat; lot's of cool ideas in a very pleasing style.
A bit of history about surf and how it made its way from Hawaii to the Côte Basques and then the rest of Europe. We'll have to check with other European surfing spots to verify Biarritz's claim to be the first place in Europe. There's been a lot of locations I've visited claiming to be the origins of X.
I'm not sure why I was surprised by the aquarium having sea turtles, but they had two different species and these kids were absolutely loving it.
The main attraction of the aquarium when it first opened: when you feel like being a lazy phoque, this is the place to be.
I didn't know this until the aquarium exhibit spelled it out: pregnant seals can slow down the growth of unborn seals. This aquarium has had a couple baby seals but today only featured two.
Looking out at the Rocher de la Vierge from atop the aquarium; the weather turned out quite nice this afternoon!
When the anguille is shy and it stays on its side, that's a moray
The shark tank had an impressive number of rays, sharks, and groupers. A panel said that they train certain sharks to respond to symbols inserted at the service to be specifically fed.
Those shrimp really were dancing! Not the macarena but a sort of multi-podal tap dance for sure.
After the museum, the weather drastically improved. I swapped out the rain jacket for sunglasses and returned to the beach to enjoy the nice day: it got a little chilly in my sweater when the sun hid behind clouds but the warmth of the stone walkway offset that. The wind had died down enough that the water was considered safe to enter and a few brave surfers lost no time in heading in.
The grand plage walkway: sometimes it's got the Olympic Flame and sometimes its got some dude eating sliced fuet while swing his legs like a little kid.
After a while, I decided to stretch my legs some more. I cut across the centreville and headed towards la côte de basques but then turned inland to explore parts of Biarritz I haven't yet seen. Turns out there's a quaint neighborhood called Bibi Beau-Rivage that way.
The Bibi Beaurivage has a small strip of bars and restaurants, and then seems to be a lot of cute residential buildings.
Coming back from the walk, I spotted a few castles that seem to have donated some of their estates to becoming public parks but remain private residences. I can only imagine what its like to have your neighbor living is a castle towering over your home.
This little building reminds me of the apartment I stayed at in Bayonne: the building is skinny enough for it!
Dinner featured a lot more English speakers in the restaurant than I'm used to. A garden club couple from the west coast were seated next to me and I spoke a bit with a woman from Paris (she either found my accent in French insupportable or wanted to practice her English).
The Portland woman was a big supporter of the Basque-style chicken; we both agreed that the floor for food in France seems a step up from the US.
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