Biarritz in the Basque Country

We stayed in a seaside palace, which in itself is imbedded in memory. Exploring this tiny town on the Spanish border was a daily excursion not to be missed. The people were friendly and very helpful. Food hunting/finding was a major part of the first couple days and all our purchases were delectable!

Biarritz is a surfing "hot spot" and, while not necessarily the greatest place to swim, the beach is crowded on weekends and the Atlantic is wonderfully refreshing on a hot afternoon. People, young and old, from the Basque area (French and Spanish) gather on the (tops optional) free beaches for fun and relaxation.

As for the remainder of the community, I'll have to do home research but, basically, we just explored the town on our own as it was terribly hot and I was reluctant to venture into Spain because of the heat and the beneficial sea breezes (at the hotel) -- all quite different from snowy New England, I assure you.

Quick Tips:

Most importantly, don't even THINK of actually swimming in the ocean there! The waves simply won't let you. Of course I learned that by experience and had quite the buffetting and when I took off my suit, it sounded like I'd broken a string of pearls as all the rocks came tumbling onto the bathroom floor!

Major suggestion: try to greet the natives in their own language and they'll respect (or -- as in my case -- laugh at) the effort. They were awesome to us with our every query: one young man gave us a foot escort to the post office since it wasn't really out of his way, and another gentleman stopped tending his garden to talk and give us directions, after which I thanked him and wished him "au jourdoui" and my daughter asked me (since I was talking at a fairly good pace) if I knew what I had just said to the man - oops! - meant "au revoir"! Sometimes a tourist there isn't red just from the sun.

Best Way To Get Around:

Mid-week, Biarritz is a quiet, almost sleepy town. The parts of our neighborhood that we experienced certainly had access to taxis (which is how we arrived at 3am), and the TGV rail station is in neighboring Bayonne, but we traveled within the town by foot exclusively. Bicycles seemed more prevalent than moving cars (which were parked on both sides of the streets), but still not plentiful. Also, we were lugging about 60 lbs. of school books and had lessons to do everyday, so we really never ventured even as far as the museum at Bayonne as I had originally hoped. But with each day being filled with bright sunshine and salt breezes, the roses all in full bloom, the heat of mid-day and being surrounded by so much to enjoy, we made plans on a minute-by-minute basis. We really just went with the flow and grew to know and love Biarritz our own way.

Napoleon III had this palace built for his wife Eugenie (of Spanish origin) and she loved it, making the small fishing village blossom into quite the place for "the rich and famous" to be (circa 1854) from that time on. Well, it certainly was a treat and had every amenity imaginable - among my favorites (difficult to select a single one) was the in-room full (from the menu) breakfast which allowed us to wake up in leisurely and pampered fashion. The personal items were Nina Ricci and plush monogramed robes and slippers (to keep) were also furnished by the hotel. Our enormous room with its 20' ceiling was furnished with graceful fitting artifacts. We were greeted with 2 vases of flowers (1 roses), a basket of fresh fruit, and a hand-written note of welcome from the manager. Wow! The bathroom was as large as a small motel room in itself and very modern in every way; stark style difference between each room with no drop in elegance. We were entitled to an upgrade but opted against it as we were situated in a diagonal mezzanine area just off the first floor lobby area so flitting in and out held no delays. We were quite content, believe me. The place is large and sprawling bordering the eastern Atlantic (a surfer's delight) as well as having a fresh water pool of its own with fluffy towels "served" to guests, and a year-round outdoor bar and peaceful shaded patios where I caught up with my writing. The service and staff were of the highest caliber, both professional and friendly. They never made us feel too weird for food shopping as we did (i.e.: hotel water was 60ff; shop water = 11ff) and returning with our bags of goodies. After each day's outing we'd return to made up beds with a boxed chocolate on each pillow...kept a couple tiny boxes for my memory album. In truth, we hardly wandered the huge hotel as I would another time. A large distraction from exploring about the building was the novelty of television with full cable (we don't have it at home) with its diversity of languages. My teenage daughter was glued to the set as often as possible for its tri-nation MTV. Surely, each suite had to be at least as enchanting as ours. The lawns and gardens were gorgeous and we quickly learned how to navigate to all the places we wanted to be; that was enough - then. The central promenade is nearby to the hotel and, with the ocean on the other side, this palace is as perfectly situated as it was centuries ago. I can certainly understand Eugenie's love for the place. If you're in France or Spain and have a couple extra days to explore, you're sure to be treated like royalty at the Hotel du Palais.

First I must say that this dining extravaganza was our last meal at our hotel and the only one in a very posh restaurant(as to spend my vacation allotment on food never made much sense to me), but I do like to have the "local" experience. We'd seen the menu and knew by the prices that we'd be food shopping in town and fending for ourselves in that manner as the locals do, and it certainly provided us with contrasts. Also it was fun each day to find a new (to us) meat or cheese shop, and we had some truly wonderful goodies (and could keep minimal amounts in the room fridge).

However, I do have to say that when we found "our" patisserie, there were no leftovers and the pounds started rearing their ugly heads! Certainly we had a perfectly filling and fulfilling breakfast each morning (along with the newspaper) and really didn't need to get too out of control. It's easy to do when everything around you is so overwhelmingly fine.

My hotel dinner was beef with bernaise sauce and was SO very good. I don't remember what else came with it other than the eel appetizer (which is their complimentary presentation when you don't order an appetizer I guess) which I wasn't overly fond of. My daughter wouldn't even touch hers, even not knowing what it was (and especially after). And then she ordered lamb of all things. I was truly surprised with her choice since I'd only had lamb once and sworn off it and never cooked it at home. She'd had 4-H friends with sheep however and she'd dined in their homes, and she was assertive and even got me to try a bite - it was delightful! What a pleasant surprise (but after this vacation, why are we still surprised with surprises?). She chose to follow her entree with an assortment of petit fours.

But the post-entree assortment of local cheeses I was treated to was optimum! That was gourmet excellence! I became an addict to French camembert the very moment I tried it! That alone is worth another trip to the continent as the U.S. uses different techniques to process camambert, and being first spoiled by the real thing put ours promptly in second place.

While the restaurant per se wasn't spectacular in physical presentation (we were totally spoiled by now), the service was perfect; better than I've ever experienced and our waiter was tipped quite well. Sorry I didn't go into the kitchen and tip the cook - it was all so outstanding. This epicurian wonderland was all such fun for both of us with every taste and turn being an adventure to savor for a lifetime!

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.