Week 3 – Wednesday 16th July – Biarritz and Saint Jean de Luz

I’ve got a bit behind, as I’m writing this on Friday night at Suances (pronounced Sue-on-Thes – Think Simons Says, with a lisp on the Says)

Wednesday, we headed to Biarritz, which is just up the coast from Hondarribbia. We think it’s because of the French border being so close, but we can’t believe the number of trucks on the roads. I know I mentioned it in yesterday’s blog, but that was on the motorway. Today, we got the same thing on the back roads and it’s a bit off putting when you’re cruising around with the roof down.

Anyway, Biarritz – very nice, up market, beautiful beach and rocky headland, Chairs and umbrellas for rent on the promenade and tents (an umbrella with sides) and chairs for rent on the beach, majestic palatial hotels (actually, I think they were former palaces), expensive shops, nice restaurants etc etc.

First stop – Breakfast of coffee, croissant, jam and orange juice at one of the restaurants in the main town square. Actually, the first stop was park the car. So that we didn’t lose it, I got Anne to write down some nearby land marks – Galleries Lafayette and the Hotel right beside the car park entrance – Hotel Climatise, was the name above the door. Hmmmm says Anne, that’s air conditioned hotel – she then spotted the name sprawled all the way down the side of the 10 storey building – Hotel President – Silly me.

We went for a walk along the main shopping street, down into the square (where we stopped for breakfast), then out along the beach, to the rocky headland to get a view (and some photos) all the way back along the beach. From the headland, there was firstly, a small enclosed marina, then an amazing rock pool, where heaps of kids were fishing with nets, then a bridge out to a smaller headland, before the very large main beach with all the sun bathers in front of the promenade down to the Palace Hotel, which is magnificent. Biarritz, as I said is very up market, renting a tent and two chairs was 10 Euros a day, the Palace Hotel’s children’s menu was 33 Euros and the main menu 65 Euros per person, excluding wine or water.

Finding the car again beside the Hotel Climatise – imagine saying to a policeman, “Can you tell me where the Hotel Climatise is, I’ve parked by car beside it”. We headed to Saint Jean De Luz – a small town between Biarritz and the French Border – where we had a fantastic lunch.

We had drinks in one of the squares in Honda at night – surrounded by heaps of kids on bikes, scooters, prams. It must be quite tough growing up on cobble stones, because all the small kids toys and prams have hard plastic wheels which don’t go very well on the small cobblestones. It’s quite funny watching them vibrating there way across the square