81 - Mind if I juin you? - Dax, Biarritz, & Lyon

 Monday, June 03

Spotted a farmer protest headed to the border on my way to work; fortunately it was in the opposite direction as me.  

After work, I swung by the Grand Mail in St Paul les Dax to pick up some laundry detergent and do a bit of clothes shopping.  Amusingly, the woman working the store recognized me from my latest visit and we had a few minutes to chit-chat and catch up.  À la prochaine 😂

Dinner was cooked at home using a sous-vide cooked piece of pork I'd picked up from a Basque producteur store in Biarritz last week.  Cooking dinner turned out to be an experience: I preheated the pan too high so that as soon as I squeezed the pork out of its plastic tubing, it started smoking on the pan.  There was quickly enough smoke to fill the apartment and set off my smoke detector; fortunately, a pan lid, some water, a closed door, and some open windows resolved the issue quickly.  My other issue was that I'd purchased a can of piperade (peppers and onions in a tomato sauce) but hadn't realized my apartment doesn't have a can opener.  So I settled for using a shucking knife for gauging holes in the lid until I had a dangerous trench through which my tasty vegetable gore could be violently shaken out of.  Trust me, I'm an engineer😅  

Tuesday, June 04

I had a hard time waking up at work: I made it in and had my cafe but didn't really wake up till 10.  Sitting in the hot control room didn't help my case, but I suppose it's a sign that things are moving in the right direction that most of the trial today was boring.  

The weather warmed up, so after work I went to the little beach to swim.  The water was almost waveless and low tide.  The rocks under the surface caught me off guard as I swam to the end of the Rocher de la Vierge and back twice; it took conscious effort not to think about the movie Jaws...  I'll need to bring goggles next time get a better feel of the depth.

Calm as a piscine today!  There's a rock shelf not too far off to the right side and it's covered in wavy plants.

The restaurant featured two smoked trout entrées: smoked trout and smoked trout minute.  Turns out the minute smoked trout came out with a hug glass cover and a thick plume of smoke over the plate.  Visually, quite an impressive event that I didn't capture on camera 😅  So instead, here's a photo of some smoked trout.

Wednesday, June 05

The weather warmed noticeably during the day at the office; we had all the windows open where possible.  Fortunately, things went smoothly such that I could escape to the cooler office than the fall asleep trying to take notes in the warm control room.  

I encountered my first real bit of traffic in a while coming back into Biarritz after work.  It's a good thing I've gotten much better with handling the clutch in the car such that I didn't stall out on the incline of the roundabout but it's definitely much easier to deal with traffic in an automatic vehicle.  Since I'd left at a reasonable time from the office, I'd toyed with the idea of going to the beach for another swim but ended up nixing that idea after the commute and feeling the cool sea breeze.  A walk to dinner revealed that plenty of other people were out enjoying the water though. 

I felt like snapping a picture of the neighborhood I'm staying in; I walked a little further along the small street this time instead of Rue Verdun and spotted this building with a quaint pedestrian path.

Another low tide sunset on the grand plage; I've come to appreciate having some clouds at sunset, otherwise you can't really see all the colors.

Taking a detour to scale back up towards Place Bellevue

Dinner was crepes/galletes at a place using black wheat, I guess to be more in line with the classic Breton style.  Not only was the meal good, crepes are an incredibly fast meal too (and the Breton cider was good; not quite as musty/funky as the Basque ciders I've tried here).   

They weren't kidding, this gallete had some serious color to it.  It was also very buttery and crisp 😋

Thursday, June 06

Today featured a meeting at lunch time of my group to review the goals made three years ago and how we've done.  It ended up being a bit more rah-rah than I cared for but I suppose it's an important subject to periodically review; after all, the job is all about driving the most value as quickly as we can for the least cost and we have to take a step back to evaluate if we're on the right path.  

After work, I made a beeline to the beach.  While walking last night, I'd discovered an open water swim coming up at Biarritz (June 22) and I signed up for it in the afternoon.  So I returned this evening with purpose and got my workout in: out and back to the edge of the rocher de la vierge four times, it ended up being almost an hour in the water.  

The entire time, some young sauveteurs in training were swimming, diving, and paddling about on boards; there was also a group of I think triathletes doing repeated short swims with shoes on.  I remember there being a brief phase of NWAC swim practice involving sets with shoes and just how incredibly awful I found swimming with shoes to be.  So kudos to them, I'll take the extra minute to remove and remettre my shoes to win a few minutes on the swim.

While they do their training with shoes, I'll take a bit of a rest from my workout.

I was hungry after the workout; fortunately, this place was offering a 500g side of pork.  The table next to me had a woman who also ordered one of these.  Turns out the fat cap is almost two inches thick!

The rest of the evening was packing my duffel bag in preparation for the weekend.  My weekend starts Friday evening with a flight from BIQ to LYS shortly after work, so it's important to win time by prepping tonight.

Friday, June 07

We encountered a few unexpected snags at work during today's tests, but that's what today's tests were about. It's a shame we didn't get to turn all the equipment but such is life.   There were a bunch of visitors on site, it was weird being one of 3 Americans today 😂 

I took off from the office a bit early after sending out a summary email with recommendations for what to try early next week. My flight to Lyon was scheduled for 18:15 so I wanted to get back to the apartment, change clothes, and then return the car at BIQ. I succeeded in all of these and had time to spare since the flight got delayed an hour anyways 😅

During the flight, I struck up conversation with my neighboring passenger.  He was returning home from a pharma convention in the area.  He provided a lot of info about the Lyon area, was curious about American elections, and even gave me a ride into town.  We parted ways at Place Bellecour, il était trop gentille!

I only had to walk a few minutes to sneak up on my parents in the plaza, my dad sharing his location via Google maps helped a lot 😆.  From the place, we worked our way back to the apartment and stopped to have a carafe of wine (and I had dinner) at a Chinese place they'd just enjoyed for dinner.  It was lovely to catch up on their travels and compare notes (even if we've been to fundamentally different places this trip).  

I'm simply pleased as punch that my family (we'll miss having you here, Price) is able to come visit.  I say visit but we're all rendezvousing in Lyon as either midpoint or end point of respective journeys; semantics aside, it's a wonderful opportunity!

From my quick walk about and verbal tour during the drive in, Lyon is looking like a nice town.  The pedestrian areas are bustling with lively restaurants and bars: with the windows open to cool off the apartment, we might have to wait a while till the bustle outside quiets down.

Looking to the left/west from the window, I could spot the Tour Mettallique.  It's like someone just plucked the top of the Eiffel tower and made it its own thing.