Biarritz, France

After exploring San Sebastian for a week, a few of my friends and I decided that we would take advantage of our proximity to France and take the train over the border for a day. After searching online, we found Biarritz- a little town right on the water that boasted pictures of beautiful beaches and ocean cliffs. So we booked a hotel and planned to take the hour train from San Sebastian to Biarritz. Unable to find any train schedules online, we were hopeful that the train times would work out and we wouldn’t get stuck anywhere or have to wait too long because we had to make one train transfer. Getting off the first train we were very confused if we were still in Spain, or had crossed over into France. Signs were both in French and Spanish and we doubted it could be that uneventful to cross the border. Being those “typical Americans” again, we asked one of the taxi drivers which country we were in. Rolling his eyes he responded, “France”. Excited to have crossed over the border, we anxiously went back inside the train station to look at the schedule. All of our excitement fell when we saw that the next train to Biarritz would not leave for another four hours. However, one of my friends had brought his surf board along and was determined to get to the beach ASAP so he went back outside to bargain with a taxi driver. His mind set on the surf, he somehow found a taxi driver with a van (who knew cars with 4 doors, let alone vans existed in Europe) who would drive the 5 of us, and my friends surfboard to Biarritz. So, we all piled into the van and crammed the surf board between the seats. Our first impression of the French was very positive- the driver told us that for the same price he would drive us through the back roads instead of on the highway so that we could see all of the pretty countryside. It was really beautiful and the hills with wide open fields and lots of trees kind of reminded me of New Hampshire. Many windy roads later, we arrived in Biarritz. Unable to fit down the tiny streets, the taxi driver dropped us off on the main road where we instantly noticed the first contrast between San Sebastian and Biarritz: hills. San Sebastian is all very flat and the streets in Biarritz were all winding and steep. After trying our best to figure out the French street signs (none of us speak a word of French) we finally found our hotel. This is when our impression of the French people started to change. When booking the hotel, I noticed that the hotel offered “cots”. So I had requested a cot in one of our rooms so that the five of us could all fit between two rooms. Well, apparently, according to French translation, cots are actually cribs.  Long story short, the women at the hotel reception was offended when we told her the error in translation and could not accept the fact that we had misunderstood. She then told us that three people could not stay in one room and that we would need to find another room in a different hotel. Our mind still set on the beach, this is not what we wanted to deal with at the moment. However, we set off to the nearby hostels and hotels, only to find that every single one was booked. In the end, the hotel finally let us have three people in one room, although they were clearly not happy about it. Finally all settled in we set out to get lunch and enjoy the beautiful day. With our minds cleared we were finally able to appreciate the gorgeous town.  Searching to find lunch, we came across a look out over the ocean where we were able to see many rock formations in the water.

 We sat down to eat near the water and quickly found that no English, or Spanish menus were offered. Staring clueless at the menu, we looked around to see what everyone else was eating and noticed that nearly everyone had this huge pots of mussels that said “moules” on the side. So, we figured that that was our best bet because it was the only thing where we knew what we would get so we all ordered that. 

After the mussels we went to explore the beach and again noticed the difference in landscape with San Sebastian because we had to walk down the side of this huge cliff to get to the beach. Exhausted from our long day, we all fell asleep on the beach and were woken up by the tide coming in and a wave literally crashing over us.

The next morning we had another run-in with a typical ‘rude’ French woman. At breakfast I tried to order coffee and automatically said “café con leche” which is how you order coffee in Spanish. Clearly offended, she responded; “do I LOOK Spanish to you?!” and told me to never come to France and try to use Spanish again. However, I forgave her forwardness after tasting the delicious fruit crepes that she made for us! After our breakfast we went to explore the other beaches for a few hours. 

                            My friends Blair, Kendall and I at the beach!

The ride home was fairly uneventful compared to the journey to get there- we somehow figured out the French bus schedule to get us to the train station, and the train times worked out so we only had to wait a few minutes to connect. Although an awesome trip, we were all happy to be back in Spanish (and English) San Sebastian.