Our first trip to the west end of the village was rather a disappointment since we weren't aware of the mid-day shutdown. Just as we found a sweet little shop offering silver jewelry and souvenir momentos to bring home for friends and family, the tiny proprietress exited the shop, locked the door, and walked away. Well, you know that didn't please us. So we did some window shopping (ritzy resort wear and youthful summer clothing primarily) and returned to the hotel, our refuge from the noon day heat.
The following day we were determined to avoid a repeat offense and started out earlier zeroing in on the Fandango as we were on a mission. The proprietress was a pretty woman and seemed a little preoccupied with her hair as we entered the shop. She didn't follow or pester us and we pretty much had the shop to ourselves, oohing and aahing our way through the aisles.
Finally, I approached the woman and asked if she spoke English. No, she replied. So with the trusty French dictionary in hand I somehow managed to indicate our preferences and quantities. Just the effort seemed to make a difference to her and she tried to meet me halfway with her attempts at English. Well, between us we did a bang-up job, and had fun doing it!
After finalizing the transaction (and she was packaging things up nicely), she asked where we were from. "Massachusetts," I told her. "Oh, Boston?" she asked. I thought that was cute, so we chatted like international pigeons and said our farewells. We had a good bit of ground to cover but the morning was off to a fine start.
It was on one of these forays that I located some lovely lace table linens for my mom and a genuine French beret for my dad. Biarritz has excellent shopping. It's such a treat regardless of which way you go and most of the people are very willing to make your stay a pleasant one. We really loved it here.