La Belle France

Bonjour from La Belle France!


Tuesday March 20th

This morning we had breakfast at our hotel before heading out into town. I wanted to check out the Tourism Centre in case they had any information about something we might miss. We then proceeded to walk around town, discovering the Chapelle Imperiale, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Hôtel du Palais, which Napoleon had built for his wife, and then we sat a while at La Grande Plage (the Grand Beach).

Surfing is very popular here. I believe, in fact, that Biarritz is the surfing capital of France. So it wasn't too surprising to see people running down the street in wetsuits, with surfboards. We watched them warm up and then dive in to take on the waves. I imagine in summer, La Grande Plage is packed with people. It was a little cold for sunbathing, and so there were only the surfers, spectators and the odd person sleeping on the beach. Still beautiful, though.

We walked along the promenade that follows the water's edge, stopping at every viewpoint. Sure is lovely here! I know that we were supposed to watch out for dog poop on the streets, but there wasn't much at all, even in Paris. People have dogs all over the place, and although I never saw anyone picking up their dog's business, I also did not see much on the ground.

Towards the end of our promenade, we stopped at the Virgin on the Rocks which is a statue built by some fisherman some time ago. Apparently they prayed to Mary when caught in a terrible storm and promised to build something to honour her if she helped them to survive. Right behind was the Museé de la Mer, which was partly a museum and partly an aquarium.

The highlight of the Museé de la Mer was watching the seals outside. There were 4 adult seals and 1 baby. They are so funny to watch! They are like really fat dogs. While we were watching them, a school group came in and a zillion small children rushed at the fences, screaming and laughing and fighting over each other to see. Thus, our time at the Museé was at an end. :)

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a Chocolatier that was right next door. Oh, happy day! So many treats there, our mouths were salivating. Ted chose an "écureuil" which means squirrel, but we can assure you it was allll chocolate. I chose a petit caramel avec sel, and a pastry with apricots and pistachios. YUM!

Tonight we are having dinner at Los Dos Hermanos (The Two Brothers), which was recommended to us by Alain & Sylvie. I think Alain was mortified that I had declared the Niçoise Salade to be my best meal so far, and wanted to introduce us to some true Basque cuisine. He made us the reservation, arranged a tour of the kitchen, and said that we would be treated "as true friends" and "like king and queen." We could hardly say no to that!

This week, many restaurants in Biarritz are doing a "menu" which is exactly like dine-out Vancouver. For €29, you get a choice of appetizer, main dish, and dessert. LDH was participating, so Ted and I ordered the "menu" and made sure to choose all different things so that we could share everything.

We started with squid, roasted red peppers, garlic sardines, potato pie, chorizo, sausage and Serrano ham. We ate it all, it was so delicious! Then we shared the main dishes: Spanish-style Hake (fish), T-Bone steak, scalloped potatoes, roasted peppers and a kind of zucchini quiche. So. Good. And don't forget the wine and sangria! For dessert we had small tastings of chocolate mousse, creme brûlée, some kind of muffin, ewe cheese with cherry jam & walnuts, tea and coffee. OMG. I was in heaven! The only thing we still needed was a wheelbarrow.

At the end of our meal, the owner took us into the kitchen for a tour and a look at the "plancha," which we gathered to mean the flat grill. We saw the storeroom and talked about where all the food comes from and the Basque-style of cooking.

Turns out the owner (one of the 2 brothers), before getting into the restaurant business, was a French National ice hockey player! He is friends with Christobal Huet, who used to be in the NHL. Cool, eh? He knew all about the Canucks and the Sedins, and used some colourful language when talking about Ovechkin. It was pretty funny. He then brought us to the bar and despite our protestations, had us doing some shots. He told us that Alain was an extremely intelligent man, and used to be quite the big-wig in the journalism world before he decided to freelance. Then he gave Ted a little football, kissed us both on both cheeks (me a little more vigorously), and said goodbye. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a highlight of the trip!


Wednesday March 21st

Today we are checking out of our hotel. Due to a couple of mistakes back home, we had one extra night in Biarritz and had decided to treat ourselves to a fancier hotel for our last night in France.

Before heading to our new hotel though, we had booked a Market Tour with a company called Biarritz By Locals. They offered a number of tours, all done in English, and they had been rated pretty highly so we were looking forward to it. We met with Emily, our guide, in front of a church that was right beside the Halles Market. It was much like Granville Island market in Vancouver, albeit smaller.

Emily grew up in France but with an American mother, so she spoke near-perfect English. That was nice for me, since even though I often get the gist of Ted's conversations, I usually ask him to translate them for me. Since we left Paris, less people speak English and so Ted's been earning his keep. ;)

We started in the fish market with some fresh shrimp, sea snail and langoustine. I tried it all. I even tried an oyster, which I knew I wouldn't like. But, I wanted to try everything. Garlic aioli and white wine helped. This was a gourmet market tour! Then we went to a stand that specialized in duck, where we had some pâté - fois gras. Tried it, didn't like it. Ted liked it quite a bit, although he found that it upset his stomach later because it was so rich. Then we had Bayonne ham (similar but different from Serrano ham), saucisson (pig stomach), chorizo and sausage. All accompanied by more ewe cheese. Emily says France is not big on crackers.

While we snacked on this last petite feast, we discussed wines with a local wine shop owner. The first wine we tried was a Bordeaux, 90% merlot, unoaked and kept in metal vats before bottling. We liked it. It was an "easy" everyday wine. The second wine was from Spain, also a red wine. Ted liked both of them equally. We can't remember the names of either of them. Maybe we had had too much wine by that point. :P I must have, because I remember asking if the shop owner had any wines with dogs on the labels...

Our last stop on the tour was to the coffee shop that was run by Emily and her Mom. We relaxed with our hot drinks, and digested all the crazy food we'd just tried! We agree that the Market Tour was a definite highlight. Not just because of eating food, either. Emily was a wealth of information and we learned a lot about the local culture. We asked a ton of questions, and was never disappointed. Highly recommended.

Then we were off to our new hotel. It was located at the edge of town by the beach and the lighthouse. I remember booking a room with an ocean view, but apparently we actually booked the Superior Suite with an Ocean View, which is their best room. The suite was huge. Pretty much the size of our apartment back home. And the sunset and the sunrise from our patio was excellent. Given that we kind of booked this by accident, we made the most of it, but our previous Biarritz hotel was very very good and we could have easily stayed there an extra night. Ah well. I'm not a ritz & glitz type of person really... All the excess in the world sometimes gets to me. I prefer a little more modesty, manners and humility. Anyways, we enjoyed our one night living the high life!

Ted went shopping and I didn't really feel like venturing out in the rain, which had just started. So I booked myself a pedicure. What was that about humility and modesty? Hehe. It was a treat. When I arrived at the spa, they brought me into a room for my pedicure. They didn't speak much English at all, so I was on my own. Turns out I had booked a "medical pedicure." Umm... not really sure what that is, but the lady seemed to think that I didn't need it. She said I had "beautiful feet" and arranged for me to have a specialist come in to paint my toes. Talk about excess! Anyways, I had it done and off I went, trying not to think about €.

For our last dinner in France, we wanted some more Basque food given that we loved everything we'd eaten last night. We were told to try Tantina de Burgos, a short taxi ride away. They were also doing the special "menu" so we did the same thing and shared all the food. It was similar stuff to what we'd had at Los Dos Hermanos, some of which Ted thought was even better. I myself preferred LDH. We had grilled squid, stronger sangria and chocolate cake. Steak, potatoes, fish, roasted peppers... it was great. Another hit!

Back to our crazy hotel. Early-to-bed for a long day ahead tomorrow!

Bon soirée,
E!