It’s raining again, it’s so wild and woolly, I’m really glad we’re not in a tent like so many people we see around us each evening. We drove further south yesterday to Biarritz and found a parking spot on the far side of town above the Plage Basque, very close to the Musee de Chocolat (which Rodney would not agree could be worth a visit…..?!) We promenaded (is that a verb?) along the cliff top to Port Vieux and the Rocher de la Vierge, above the Port des Pecheurs, the Bellevue and to the far end of the Grande Plage to the Hotel du Palais.
Suddenly, really suddenly, the wind dropped, the rain stopped, the sun came out and the raincoats came off.
So we sat down at a table outside the Bleu Café right next to the sand and ate the most enormous salads for lunch whilst watching the promenade fill up with tourists, the beach fill up with sunbathers and the ocean fill with surfers. It was as if we were in a completely different town…..
Late in the afternoon, we checked in to Camping Biarritz and proceeded to fill up the washing machine and dryer twice, whilst recharging electronics, eating dinner, showering and generally settling in for three nights here.
Thursday
The campsite showers are the very best so far on our trip and that set me up for a great start to a very nice day in the resort of the beautiful people. Ok, it’s no longer the sixties and we haven’t bumped in to Coco Chanel, Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, Charlie Chaplin, Stravinsky, Marilyn Monroe, or even Napolean III (thank goodness, cos I think they’re all dead), but we do seem to be surrounded by beautiful young people and we seem to have lost all of our fellow grey nomads. However, it’s not the glitzy, stylish place I was expecting, it seems more like Bondi; full of surfers and their shops. There’s even a ‘Newquay Pub’ !!!
Anyway, we’ve now enjoyed a lazy morning and a trip to Intermarche. We sat outside Eileen for a lunch of tomatoes sliced and covered in buffalo mozzarella, balsamic, olive oil, salt and cracked black pepper served with half a baguette. We then sauntered down to the nearest beach, the Plage Marbella and dozed for a while. The water is currently a low 18C, so we only had very quick dips to cool off.
It’s still 29C as we sit outside Eileen at 7pm and I think it might be a hot night tonight. Better go in and cook up the steak, mushrooms, onions, salad and jacket potatoes, we’re intending to eat very well today. Oh and the bottle of rosé is in the fridge chilling……………..
Dinner was good and Rodney has just gone off to the facilities block to do the washing up; perhaps because it is currently full of beautiful young ladies…….