Just when we started to get into the swing of things....Fall break came and we found ourselves on a short plane ride to Bordeaux. We flew on an early morning flight to Bordeaux and rented a Fiat "Panda." Yes, that's right, a Panda. Not only was it a tad combersome like a big fat bear, but it would twitch a little going down the road when it saw a bamboo forest (or maybe it was because it was a rental and it had been jumped a couple times).
The first place we took our Panda after Alex rode around in the Bordeaux countryside while I slept in the passenger seat was to the Dune de la Pyla. This huge sand dune is the largest in Europe and one if the biggest in the world. We came on the most perfect day as there was a cool breeze and little fluffy cotton clouds covering the deep blue sky. We hopped a fence to get to the path up the dune and once at the top, we could see for miles. The dune had already swallowed a hotel and a large amount of the nearby forest. They say that it grows by 15 feet per year. At that rate, the nearby forest and neighborhoods do not stand a chance.
We loaded back into the Panda and trundled down the road to a French truck stop for lunch where we discovered that they serve about the same type of food as the truck stops in the South. Needless to say, I stuffed my face with a chocolate eclair to cleanse my palette of the truck stop taste. As we pulled up to our place we rented through Airbnb.com, a siamese cat greeted us and would greet us ever morning and night from there on.
As we arrived in Biarritz, the good weather continued, which was a pleasant surprise from the weather reports a colleague in the area had been giving us via Facebook. This place was magical. It was like a Disneyland for surfers. Never in my life have I seen such a surfer friendly town. Huge breaks dominate the coast of Biarritz in the Fall/Winter an this is what we witnessed as we pulled up to the local break. As I looked around, I realize that I had seen the local breaks in surf videos I had watched as a teen. As we sat on the wall watching the surf at the Cote des Basques I remembered seeing the castle on the point in one particular surf film. When we went to the Grand Plage, I remember seeing the huge rocks with the surfers navigating surf through them as well. It was like coming to a place that I deep down knew existed but thought I would never see. And yet, here we were.
We spent the next 3 hours driving around town looking at all the surf spots and going through so many cool tunnels. We walked across a bridge to a huge rock in the middle of the ocean that had its own little environment an it reminded me of the Hobbit. The whole town was so clean and seemed to have an emphasis on nature and beautifying the town through natural means, I loved it.
We met up with Alex's friend from EDHEC, Tatsuya (from Tokyo) to go surfing and Tatsuya and I found ourselves amongst giant waves! Eventhough the surf was smaller on this day, it still was incredibly huge to what we both had surfed before. We paddled out at a beach break called "Ibiarritz" East of the Cote des Basques because high tide came and took the waves from that particular spot. It had been awhile since I had paddled out in surf that big and I found myself exhausted by the time I came back to the beach. Luckily, Alex fueled me up with a Nutella and whipped cream waffle that I did not hesitate to eat in order to get the salt out of my throat. Tatsuya seemed to be just as tired as me, so we packed up the Panda and headed back to the Cote des Basques in hopes that the tide would come back down and bring better waves. We were right, the waves were much better here and we caught some rides right before having to return the board.
The French surfboard rental guy was an interesting one. When we first rented the board he seemed to be a bit rude, but upon return, he was friendly and chatted me up about California and eventually invited us to a huge Halloween party on the beach. Of course we accepted the invitation and figured out it was a costume party. I had 2 hours to figure out a costume given a small bag of clothes and everyday make up I had brought with me. I used black eyeliner, a pearl shade of eyeshadow and red lipstick to create a half of a sugar skull face. The guys weren't so festive.
We went to dinner with Tatsuya and ate at a great place called Tikia which had basque food and amazing desserts. At the party, it was so packed full of people (around 400) that we decided to stay for awhile to watch but then left fairly early. There were great costumes an the majority of the surfers that showed up utilized their "snuggie" like surf blankets to create costumes.
The next day we ate at the local market and drove to San Sebastián, Spain. It was beautiful and also had amazingly huge surf. We took some go pro footage of our drive up a twisty hill where we stood on top and could see a panorama of the ocean and the city. Again, another wonderful mixture of beautiful architecture and nature.
When we came back into Biarritz for our last night, we were turned away from multiple restaurants that were completely full and ended up at a brand new place where we were 2 of 4 people eating. Despite the lack of customers, this place was great. We had an amazing meal and the chef personally shook out hands as we walked out the door.
The next morning we found ourselves not wanting to leave Biarritz. Even as I write this blog, I wish we could still be in that wonderful place. We eventually got ourselves together, visited the waves one last time, and got in the Panda to head to Hossegor (another very popular surf spot). The town of Hossegor was attractive and had its surf culture thing going for sure. However, when we made our way to the waves, the hotels and shops on the sand were covered in graffiti and made the place look dirty. The break was great but again, at least double overhead. I could see why they host the championships here.
As night time approached we found ourselves back in Bordeaux to catch our flight. We ate one last meal at a place when translated into English means, "Happy like Alex." It was a fondue restaurant and it was tasty. After dinner, we ate ice cream in the rain and travelled back to our hotel to get some needed sleep before our early morning flight back to Nice. This trip had been in the top 3 experiences of our lives.
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