A Week in Biarritz

We arrived in Biarritz just over two hours after leaving Dublin . On time and an uneventful journey . For once we disembarked from a Ryanair flight without having the desire to kick Michael O'Leary's ass . Biarritz a small homely airport , we picked up our luggage almost straight away , well to be honest , large pink suitcases , with flowery tie-ons , are hard to miss . We saw our hosts as soon as we passed through the customs area .
Jean and Bernard had kindly invited us to spend a week with them .I had only been to France once before , a wonderful week in Paris last year , my wife had been various times before and even had passable French .Jean spoke good English and Bernard speaks broken English but READS English with ease . I was the odd-man-out totally dependant on my three companions to communicate .On the one occasion when I was left alone and a young lady spoke to me I tried , in my best John-Wayne-French to explain that I did not speak the language....another missed opportunity.

Their apartment overlooks the beach (La Grande Plage on the Cote Basque).Our hosts had , literally , given up their beds to us , and we had post-card views from our bedroom balcony.Jean and Bernard apologised for the weather as if the 16c temperature instead of the usual 30c was their fault .But in fact as it turned out we saw much more of Biarritz , and surrounding areas of Bayonne and Anglet than we would have seen had the weather been very hot .Bernard said I missed the bikinis (and less ) on the beaches ...but there will always be time for that .
So we saw where the royalty of Europe played and prayed from the late 19th century to the beginning of the Second World War . The Palace that Napoleon III built for his Empress Eugenia , the Casino , strolling through the streets of Bayonne , the tiny Basque fishing villiage Le port des pecheurs (?) with a small (50?) population but retaining its old traditions , including an elected Mayor , amid the tourist bustle , the Bonnat Museum , with its paintings drawings and sculptures put together by Leon Bonnat between 1880 and 1900 including two Le (El)Grecos ,light and dark of ' Saint-Jerome ' and ' Le Duc de Benavente ' , we attended an evening of Basque Choral music in the church of Sainte Eugenie , not forgetting the seals showing off in Biarritzs' sea world , especially 'Charlie'.

We visited San Sebastian which is just over the Spanish border and is part of the Spanish Basque country .The mysterious Basques ,apparently the origins of their language ,traditions , even blood groupings and physique is a partial mystery .We drove to the railway station and straight in to a row with the ticket seller who refused to speak French to our hosts and whose attitude , at least as far as I could make out , was remeniscent of one of the aforesaid Ryanair' s more agressive staff members .Apparently the Basques do not get on too well with the French or the Spanish .
When we arrived in S. S. on the little train the weather was beautiful , we saw the bull-ring square surrounded by hundreds of numbered windows 5 or 6 stories high , unfortunately no bull fight on that day .Our meal at a Basque Restaurant in a small cobbled street turned out to be a European melting -pot . As I have said , our hosts were French , who spoke English ,I am Irish , my wife is English , although living in Ireland , we were in a Basque Restaurant , who were not the friendliest ,so.....my wife decides to order ....Spaghetti Bolonese.....in Italian...which she confused with French .....and all this happened in ....Spain.
It was a lovely day and we really enjoyed it .

On Sunday Jean and Bernard took us on a drive in the Basque area around Biarritz ,we visited St. Jean de Luz ,Espellette , Cambo-de-pays (?),we sampled local cheeses ,chocolate factories (Homer Simpson.....ummmmme....chooccoolate) , the famous Espelette little pepper...

We were sad to leave Biarritz and our generous hosts .....and a country that produces such lovely food ....we enjoyed our days of wine and cheeses...(was it De Gaulle ,who said something about trying to govern a country which produces 300 different types of cheese ?)....Au revoir