Nick and I watched the NBA East Conference Finals between
the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics starting at 2:30am. We thought it was a good idea at the time to
watch the entire game until the Heat ended up beating the Celtics around
5:45am. At least we can say we watched
it.
Unsurprisingly, our day in Biarritz started around 2:00pm in
the afternoon due to the fact that everyone was exhausted either because of the
long day or simply staying up to watch the NBA finals. First, we spent some
time waiting for the house renter to come by to fix the cable since the cable
provider spoke no English for us to communicate the issues that the cable box
was having. After all troubleshooting was
done, we found out if we had just unplugged the entire system and plugged
everything back in, we probably could
have gotten it to work on our own. That’s
technical assistance at its finest. Oh
well. Second, we had breakfast. Mom had
went to the store and bought some croissants and milk before we woke up which
was nice. Bon appétit!
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| The épicerie |
We decided to walk around in town for a bit to both a) find
the épicerie (grocery store) and b) find lunch.
On Sundays, we realized many stores were closed so it gave us fewer
options for eating. We ended up sitting
down for a small tapas bar where we sat and watched some of the French Open
between Nadal and Djokovic. There was a
crazy old lady sitting next to us that wore black lipstick and black eye liner
with bright blonde hair. On the other
side was some guy who had quite a few to drink at 3 in the afternoon. Not to mention, no one spoke English at this
place so we resorted to our primal means of communication such as pointing at
the menu items. Everything ended up
fine, but still an interesting experience.
We headed to the grocery store for Mom to pick up “the
essentials”. Some interesting things to
note:
- They had more different kinds of wine available than food in the store
- Milk is served in liter bottles, not gallon jugs
- Most of the fresh produce is not chilled, i.e. the lettuce is simply sitting in a basket, unwashed
After we took the groceries back and relaxed for a while, we
headed out down to the beach to walk along the water. It was extremely windy but not
bothersome. Dad decided to take a
million pictures as we walked along the coast.
Most of the coastline was rocky and not very beach-like. In turn, when we reached the beach section,
we found it empty – no one was interested in the beach on a stormy day.
 |
| A view of one of Biarritz's beaches |
We trudged along through Biarritz to try and find a place to
eat for dinner to no avail. Some of the
restaurants that we had planned on trying were closed or too far away. We ended getting tired of trying to find the
perfect French cuisine and settled on a little pizzeria in the tourist
district. We were pleasantly surprised
at some of the cool pizza choices they had.
I ordered the Margherita Pizza Pescatoria or “seafood pizza”. Basically, it was an assortment of clams,
mussels, calamari, and cuddle fish on a normal cheese pizza. We also had a jug of “house wine” from
Bordeaux to make up for our Italian meal in a French town. Ultimately, it was the first meal I felt full
at because the calorie level was close to what I was used to back home. We
treated ourselves to dessert and my order was something similar to a hot fudge
sundae. Looking back on the meal, I couldn’t imagine being an athlete here and
expecting to get enough food for the amount you would burn off from working out
twice a day. I suppose you would have
more of a entrée + main course + dessert + coffee for your meal to make sure
you got enough. I guess that is why
Europeans are so thin.
 |
| Pizza! |
Finally, we headed home to chill out on the couch and watch
some newfound French television. We
couldn’t really understand any of it, but I can see how people would be able to
pick up the language if they were here for a longer period of time. I already start noticing how words are
pronounced as well as simple phrases. If
I wanted to write them here I would have to look up how they are spelled since
I honestly have no idea. Nice end to a
short but relaxing day. To finish up,
I’ll list a few more things that I noticed today.
- The idea that French people are “snobby” is an inaccurate stereotype as far as I can tell. One guy offered directions to us even though we didn’t ask for them in a very polite manner and no one has been impolite to us yet
- Everyone smokes in France. I’m convinced that stereotype is extremely accurate. For being a “healthy” country, they make up for it in the packs of cigarettes they smoke each day
- Scarves are big. Even guys wear them. I know I said accessories were important before but at this point I am convinced that they are essential to French attire.
- To say hello, many people will do the “air kiss” on one or even both cheeks. Guys do it to other guys too. Handshakes aren’t enough I guess
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