76 - All aboard the Pain (au chocolat) Train! - Biarritz

Tuesday, May 21

A longer day at work than expected.  Things didn't go as planned and the batch behaved differently than the previous one despite only minor tweaks in our procedure.  Still, overall progress and learnings.  

I got a kick out of visiting the bakery this morning to buy my sandwich and saw they offered both chocolatines and pains au chocolats 😆 

Madames et messieurs: un pain au chocolat!

This might be the first sandwich I've had in France that was round instead of cylindrical

I've gotten much better at parking in the apartment garage, good thing too cause almost all the spots were filled tonight.  Dinner was just down the street at Jack the Cockerel.  It wasn't the only place open at 22h but it was one of the closest.  It was lively with beat heavy music in the background and a blend of themes.  Many young people were here, I think it's just across the way from a nightclub (boîte de nuit), I've never seen a night club open here in my time in France but I've also heard they only open after midnight so maybe that's why. 

While I was finishing up my meal, I'd forgotten that I hadn't changed out of the shirt I'd worn to work, which featured the company logo and the name of the project.  He must have been particularly extroverted, but a guy at another table asked me about what my shirt meant.  In explaining what I was doing here, I realized that the guy was recently moved from the US as well; when I said I was from New York and he asked which part, I had to back track with a "if you ask a New Yorker, they'd say I'm not really from New York.  I'm in New Jersey, just next to Manhattan" 😅 He'd moved recently to Biarritz from Bergen county in New Jersey so he understood my predicament 🤣.  

Roasted cauliflower with beetroot mousse; gotta get those servings of veggies in style

Wednesday, May 22

A more relaxed day at work.  Despite all the weirdness of yesterday's batch, we were quite close to the target.  I've got some theories and ideas for tomorrow, every day we get closer to having this thing figured out.  

Lunch was at Carines's where a light crowd left me time to chit chat with Carine and the serveuse Cécile.  Turns out Mother's Day in Europe is this coming Sunday, I was scratching my head because I thought it had already passed (it did in the US).  

I tried a new place for dinner called el Callejon, nestled into a building covered in renovation scaffolding.  For being hidden away, the place was pretty nice.  From what I can tell, the pintxos places in France don't believe in the Spanish method of ordering them from a display at the bar but treat them more like tapas to be ordered from a menu.  

This dish was described as a paella but with pasta instead of rice; I agree with the description and can vouch for it being tasty.  I also got to try some yellow Izarra (a Basque liquor) here, it's quite tasty as an aperitif!

Catching the fading light after sunset; I hadn't realized how well lit the grand plage is by the casino for most of the night.

Thursday, May 23

Another long day at work as we spent a good amount of time titrating; every change took almost an hour given the steps involved in getting a representative sample.  We won't know the results till tomorrow but I've got a feeling we're narrowing in on how to run this thing smoothly and on target (I feel like I've been saying this a lot).

I got home just to immediately put my bag down and walk out the door again.  We had lovely weather in the evening and I took advantage of it to walk along the shore.  Dinner was at a restaurant over seeing the little beach, in theme, the restaurant's interior had a nice later of white sand covering the floor.  My fish was kinda like a shakshuka but it was really good.

I reached out to the outgoing guy I'd met at the restaurant a few nights ago.  We'd joked about maybe playing pétanque and tonight I asked about if he wanted to play tomorrow evening.  Sadly, no pétanque tomorrow but we're not giving up on the game yet 😆 

Another great sunset view from the shores of Biarritz tonight

My walk home had me pass by what looks to be a theater specializing in comedy shows.  After my latest visit to the Luna Negra in Bayonne, I'm hesitant to say my French is to the level that I can truly grasp a francophone comedy special.

I'm not sure what a hotdogger is (aside from being possibly the most American word I've ever heard) but it's happening this weekend.

I'd been trying to make a decision about what to do this weekend based on options I had with people scattered in mutually exclusive areas and modes of transport.  I stayed up fairly late trying to decide and ultimately pulled the trigger on one before going to bed.

Friday, May 24

It was a quiet day at the office.  Analysis of yesterday's efforts showed we were good enough but not quite on the mark just yet.  Most efforts were spent reviewing what happened and planning a schedule for next week.  

Speaking of schedule, I spent a good amount of time reviewing my own.  I've proposed to stay working here until June 21, at which point I'll plan on a week of vacation before returning to the US in time for the 4th of July.  The site manager didn't have any complaints and I'm fairly sure my boss is in agreement with this plan last I mentioned it to him.  

Lunch featured joining a friendly retiree at her table.  As a new regular, we had gotten acquainted last week.  Nicole moved to the area three months ago to be closer to her children and grandchildren but has been a great many places; I'll have to bounce some of my destination ideas off of her and see what suggestions she has!

This weekend starts with traveling Friday night: I'm taking a night train up to Paris!  After plenty of humming and hawing about whether to go or not to meet my friend (taking an extended layover there), she was able to convince me of the folly of spending 6 months in France and not actually visiting Paris.  The train itself will be an experience for me since it'll be my first SNCF expérience in a very long time and my first long haul train ever.   

The Txik Txak bus is so colorful but also very reasonably priced for getting to the train station in Biarritz

It's not a big station, but this'll be my first train ride during my 6 months in France.  Saying that out loud strikes me as strange, since I think of European countries as having robust train systems but I never found the train to be more convenient for my weekend outings till now.  Either I picked weird places or I'm simply spoiled with a "my pace" schedule

The first leg of the trip involves getting from Biarritz to Bayonne, which was really just a 15 minute ride.

After stopping in Bayonne with a 1.5 hour layover for the night train to arrive, I opted to have dinner at a place across the street from the gare.  I'm not sure what exactly was going on the but after 30 minutes to be asked about what I ordered again and that the restaurant didn't have more axoa, I figured I'd just have my beer and grab a sandwich from elsewhere for dinner 😅 

Behold, my delicious taco-naan dinner just before the train arrives for boarding.  Very tasty, it seems like the sort of item I would have been bananas for in university 😂 

Surprisingly (and thankfully) the bunk is long enough for me to lay out!

And we're off to the races!  Not really, first we'll stop at Dax and then Bordeaux to grab more passengers.

The ride laying down was surprisingly smooth; I could get used to getting around prone or supine

I can't complain about my bunk mates: of the 5 other random dudes in my cabin, no one stank nor snored too loud.  Turns out the typical plan for most of the passengers was to eat and brush teeth before boarding the train, then simply settle down and sleep the 8 hour train ride.  

For €60, riding 2nd class on the intracity night train was certainly an experience.  Not entirely bad either!  

I'm off to the land of "pain au chocolat"!