Le Biarritz

... Pinxos restaurant she, Ev, and Jullie had loved 3 weeks earlier. It was truly amazing and we enjoyed talking with a lovely british couple who now run a B&B in Provence. Judy and the kids had a wet but fun time, as the weather had finally turned south.

                       

I don't really need to tell you what we did do I? Take one part playground, one part beach, and one part sunset and you have a Kramer day in Biarritz.

           

Judy spent the day with Pierre, a former wrestler and French Olympic wresting coach (he went with the team to Atlanta) who she had met on the train ride a few days ...

We spent the morning touring our recently discovered Bayonne with the kids and Judy continued exploring during the afternoon ...

... only look good. After our first night, we realized they sit out on the bar all day, so who knows how long they sit there. I had a horrible stomac ache after our first night... no wonder. For our second tapas experience, we ordered off the menu and we had Kanguroo Tacos and Shark. It was absolutely delicious.

As for ...

... of the genuine appreciation of the devoted crowd). Evie and Tyler were dissappointed that the carousel wasn't open but were delighted 3 hours later, when we arrived in Biarritz to discover that our new home has a carousel 5 minutes walk from our house. They love their carousels in France!!!
 
                 

... first...... I HAD A HOTEL, NOT A HOSTEL BUT A HOTEL. I checked into my HOTEL and was so happy to have my own bed, own shower own privacy. Biarritz has no hostel and I was happy for it. I was nervous to be a little solidary but in the long run it was one night and I was going to soak every second of it up. Okay, back to it. It was raining, I put on the jacket and headed for the beach. They had the most incredible beach and with the storm that was hitting them hard ...

... and we explored the town the following morning. By exploring the town, I mean we started our day in the fish market eating oysters and drinking french champagne at 11 in the morning. The French routine (as I had discovered the night before, when we sat down to dinner AFTER they collected me from the station at 11pm)is on a whole different time-table.... There were a few Kiwi's (New Zealanders) staying at the house too and up until Saturday night, they were a ton of fun ...

... filled with young French guys walking around with surfboards. The architecture is pretty unique and is a strange combination of Monte Carlo like elegance and stark modernity. As we winded through the ancient streets of the seaside town, we reached an intersection dominated by large wrought iron gates. I asked my parents, "What's that building?" They responded, "Our hotel." My jaw dropped. We pulled up to imposing wrought iron gates to the Hotel du Palais, our hotel ...

Hello Again, Time to update as we have been out of touch for a while. Lots of train travel and not much time near a computer. Clearly that should be considered a good thing. We had such good times in Spain during our hikes in the Pyrenees (a total of about 2 hours in the middle of a mountain pass) that we decided that we should spend a few days in a Spanish town. Very close to the ...