Bordeaux, Dax, Bayonne, Biarritz, and St. Jean de Luz

26/10/09 – 2/11/09

VACATION! I love that in the French school system you get four 2-week breaks per year. There’s one at the end of October, one for Christmas, one at the end of February, and one in the middle of April (which will mark the end of my contract at the school). For this vacation Rosa, Anna, and I decided to take a trip to the Basque coast. We started in Bordeaux then headed south to Dax, Biarritz, Bayonne, and St. Jean de Luz.

Bordeaux -
The three of us arrived in Bordeaux at around 6pm and were picked up at the station by Elise (a French teacher at the lycée in Fumel who has an apartment in Bordeaux) and her mother. Since it was dark out, the city was all lighted up. Along the quai there were rose-colored lanterns which seemed to pay homage to the fuschia-lit fountain of La Place de la Borse. Everything was pink to celebrate cancer awareness. Even the water of the fountain had been dyed pink and the figures of the fountain sported pink sashes. The city was even more alive thanks to a grand carnival taking place in the Esplandes des Quinconces. The Esplanade is a football-sized open area flanked by two colonnades of birch trees and two statues of French Revolution figures. The open promande is capped by a grand fountain featuring Poseidon creatures (ie: water nymphs, horses with webbed hooves, sea monsters). The contrast between the grand architecture and art of the statues and fountains made for a very delightful contrast with the carnival lights and attractions.
Elise, her mom, Rosa, Anna, and I walked down the grandly lit Rus de Sainte Catherine to a nice little restaurant with an odd name (Socosses or something like that). Most of the time it’s the best value to order off of the fixed price menu at restaurants. For only 14 euro at this restaurant I was treated to a chicken and mushroom quiche/tarte as an appetizer, a filet of fish with a thyme and red pepper chutney for the main course, and a white chocolate mousse with figs for dessert. With a lovely Bordeaux wine and lots of yummy bread, the meal was quite a success. After dinner we walked back to Elise’s car and she drove us to her apartment, which was only about ten minutes (by car) south-east of the downtown area. Fortunately for us, there was a bus stop right in front of Elise’s building from which we could easily get back into the city.
We woke up at a lazy hour the next morning, had some brunch with Elise and then set off to do some sightseeing in town. We walked down the quai and visited the same sites we had seen the night before, but this time in the daylight. Bypassing some of the more obvious historical attractions, we steered ourselves towards the marvelous Rue St. Catherine (shopping central!)- H&M, Etam, Xanaka…etc. I managed to find a couple nice items. We saw this hilariously incredible shag fur dress and after I promised to buy Anna a drink if she tried it on, we had a fashion show in the H&M dressing room! If you’re starting to worry about me forsaking real culture to embrace capitalist consumerism, I’d like to reassure you that we also visited the Cathedrale St. Andre and the Hotel de Ville.
Also in Bordeaux, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to tour a vineyard. The vineyard, called Chateau Pape Clement, was actually in Payssac (a south-western suburb of Bordeaux). We caught the bus from Elise’s apartment to the vineyard and we planned to take a bus back into the center of Bordeaux in the evening. Unfortunately, we misjudged the location of the vineyard and ended up walking quite a ways from the bus stop to get there. Even though all the grapes had already been harvested, the fall colors of the grape vines made for a beautiful scene. Wine production at the vineyard started way back in the 14th century, but a Victorian Chateau has served as the main-house of the vineyard since the 1700s. (Unfortunately, my architectural knowledge-base is pretty pathetic, so please forgive any anachronisms). After touring the production rooms and aging cellars of the vineyard, we were treated to a “dégustation” (wine tasting) where we got to try a classically “Bordeaux” wine. Steeped in leather and earth scents, the wine opened up to have a black currant fruitiness balanced with the remaining flavor of the grape vine itself. I felt so happy to be finally indulging myself at a vineyard. haha
After our tour of the vineyard, we were supposed to meet with some friends of Anna’s in Bordeaux centre. We walked from the vineyard to a bus stop and waited for the bus. Then, we waited some more. Then some French girls told us that the buses may not be running and that there was a another bus stop around the corner at which we should try waiting. So we walked there and waited…and waited. Finally a bus arrived which was going in the opposite direction of the center of town. We figured we could at least get to a different bus station on that bus to get back into town. We jumped on the bus and drove for maybe a half of a kilometer before coming to a dead stop. Traffic. Horrid traffic. So we waited. Nearly 45 minutes later we got of the bus at the very last stop on the tramways path. We were in downtown Mérignac (by the airport!) We rode the tram for 16 stops and finally reached the center of Bordeaux. We met up with the friends of Anna (two brit girls also from Oxford) and after downing one pricey margarita, tried to decide what to do for dinner. We decided that while we had Elise’s full kitchen at our disposal, we should try to eat in and save our money for future dinners.

Dax
Today started with a rough morning…Even though we tried really hard to catch an early bus and make it to the train station in Bordeaux with enough time to get our tickets to Dax, we failed and ended up sitting in the train station for an hour and a half waiting for a later train. That’s how it goes though. We finally made it to Dax and were met by Marie-Laure, a Spanish Language teacher with whom Rosa works at the lycée. Dax is a humble little town that really only attracts visitors during the summer. Originally settled by the Romans, Dax boasts ancient ramparts and a tiny archeological museum (which was closed, of course.) The main tourist attraction is the city’s mineral baths, which are believed to cure rhumetoid arthritis and other joint problems. In the center of the town there is a Roman bath/fountain in which flows naturally hot mineral water. Although hot sulfur water is not very appealing to me, it was pretty cool to touch the hot water spring up from the ground. Marie-Laure then drove us out of town and to her farmhouse in the countryside where we spent the night.

Biarritz, St. Jean de Luz, and Bayonne
The rest of our trip was spent between three different cities which form a sort of touristic triangle. We decided that since we didn’t want to be tied down by train times and the distance from the gare to the center of each town, that we would rent a car for the weekend. It turned out to not be that expensive (80 euro for three days) so we picked up the car in Bayonne on Friday morning and told them we’d return it at the break of dawn on Monday. Being that we had to return the car early on Monday and our train was quite a bit later on Monday, we decided to leave most of Bayonne for the period of time when we no longer had our car.
We took off in our beloved car (which we named “Giselle” partially because of an amusing story about a chipmunk that Anna had told us and partially because when the cute car rental guy told us about the car I misheard the word “diesel” as “giselle”) and began our drive through a town called Anglet and towards Biarritz. Normally in French, one would pronouce a word spelled “Anglet” like “ong-lay.” If the word were to be pronounced with the T on the end, it should’ve been spelled “Anglette.” Apparently in the south-west of France though, they pronounce all the letters in words, so eventhough it felt wrong to say “on-glet” that is what we had to do. Our hotel for that night was in Anglet (right next to the airport infact) but we were too excited to stop our driving at the hotel. We continued to Biarritz (only about 15 min from Bayonne) and had our breaths taken away by a gorgeous seaside town on a gorgeously summery day! Rosa had the pleasure of driving around two screaming girls giddy from the warm air and by a lovely car ride. The second that we caught sight of the ocean, we knew we were in love with Biarritz. We hurredly parked the car and scrambled to the shore. We could not have asked for better weather. Eventhough it was the end of October, the temperature was a balmy 70 degrees and the sun was shining with all its might.
We walked out on a long stone pier topped by a Virgin Mother statute which overlooked the bay and joined the other tourists in shameless picture taking. We walked a bit on the quai along the beach and throughout the town. It was fabulous. Great weather, great little shops, a perfect little town… We went back to our hotel to drop off our bags and take a little rest before heading back to Biarritz for a night on the town. Unfortunately, Biarritz isn’t really a night-life kind of town. It has more activity than like Fumel, but compared to Bordeaux (or Bayonne, as we would later discover) it’s more of a daytime town. We had a few drinks at a brasserie and then ate something inconsequential. Our hotel for that night was quite disappointing. The bathroom looked like it belonged in an airplane and the room was fitted with bunk beds….yea. You take what you can get though. Haha
The next day, we took an excursion to the town of St. Jean de Luz. We weren’t sure what to expect but we quickly realized the St Jean is the shopping capitol of the Basque coast. SO many little boutiques (some of which were even affordable!) St. Jean also has a nice walkway along the shoreline. Although it’s not a white sandy beach like in Biarritz, the boulders and rocks being bathed by the water were very beautiful. We took in the sunset and then headed back to Biarritz to check into a different hotel for the last two nights of our vacation. Hotel Anjou, situated right at the end of the main strip in Biarritz was so cheap for what we got! Two nice big beds, a big bathroom, an entrance right inside the main door of the building (really the whole place was a large house that had been converted into a hotel.) If you ever go to Biarritz, you should definitely stay at Hotel Anjou.
We decided that for our evening festivities we would go to Bayonne for some light shopping and maybe a drink and then come back to Biarritz for dinner. Bayonne was quite busy when we got there (around 6). There was a rugby game that night so the bars were full of people watching the game. We did a quick little tour of the shops before they closed and then headed back to Biarritz.
We had found that it was always a better bargain to go with the fixed price menus at restaurants (ie: 16 euro gets you an appetizer, main dish, and dessert) so we went from restaurant to restaurant looking for a decent priced “Menu” and finally found a nice restaurant out by the sea. I had a nice seafood gratin, then salmon, and then delicious ice cream for dessert.
Our last full day in Biarritz started off with a trip to the Sea Museum. (I’d call it an Aquarium, but they had nautical displays not relating to animals in addition to fish tanks). Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling too well and so I had to take a break from the fishy smell and get some fresh air. We did get to watch the sea lions being fed. So that was fun. After the Sea Museum we went to a different museum…a Chocolate museum! We watched a little documentary on the history of the cacao trade and then walked through an area of historical chocolate paraphernalia.
The next day we rose very early and drove to Bayonne to return the car. The weather was quite dreary but we managed to find a few interesting sites to see. Most notably was the cathedral and adjoining monastery. The sky cleared up just in time for us to snap a few pics of the colonnade in the monastery. Our train back to Agen via Bordeaux left around 1pm so after grabbing a bite to eat we boarded the train and bid the Basque coast a fond farewell.