Day 8: Biarritz beach + party

Nice weather had arrived finally in Biarritz, France and we were eager to use it.  Dad and Nick headed out to the Biarritz surfing beach by the casino first around 1pm.  Lucas, Mom, and I followed shortly after.  In our efforts to find them on the beach, we got to do a lot of “exploring” of the beach.  You have to understand that this was the first nice day that we had been at a foreign beach before.  To be blunt, there were a lot of topless women of all kinds.  Most of them were old women, but hey, you see a few younger ones here and there J.

Nick on the beach posing

 Once we found Nick and Dad, we headed into the ice cold Atlantic water in the swimming area.  There were two designated areas for people to be in the water.  The other area was dedicated to surfers and boogie boards to make sure that they had enough room to do their thing.  Upon entering the water, it hit me in three stages: first very cold and uncomfortable, second numbness, third uncontrollable shivering and discomfort from my hands and feet.  I was unable to stay in the water for more than 15 minutes at a time because it was so cold.  However, the waves were pretty big and made for a fun time trying to ride them in through the crowd of people in the water.  I suppose you were supposed to do rotations anyways because no one without a wetsuit stayed in the water very long.

We sat on the beach for a few hours and enjoyed the sun for once since our vacation had been plagued with rain clouds for most of the time.  After moving to the surfing area, we grabbed our boogie boards and tried to catch some waves without hypothermia.  I was able to catch one and ride it all the way to shore from about 40 yards out.  I hopped out of the water promptly after and wrapped myself in a blanket to try and recover from the cold experience.  It was fun to ride, but not fun to be that cold.

The rest of us enjoying the first day of nice weather

 After the beach, we headed back to take a break for a bit since there was supposed to be a party later that night in town.  Mom made several types of ravioli for dinner which tasted fantastic. She used all fresh ingredients from the market.  Everyone pretty much took naps and played games for a bit until we were ready for the party in the town.

Before the party, we headed down to the coast to take some sunset pictures because it was the first chance we had at seeing one on the coast of France since we arrived.  The clouds ruined a little bit of it but overall it was a nice view.  We walked over to the party and basically it was a stretch of several tents hosting bars and restaurants all down the coast.  They had some security gate at the entrance but no checking of IDs or anything.  The cup to drink was €1 and most drinks after that were around €3.  Music was playing and tons of people were gathered along this stone boardwalk party next to the shore.  The biggest issue? No one seemed to speak English, leaving us all a little alienated.

Sunset picture

 Mom and Dad decided to go back early and they gave Nick, Lucas, and I money to spend on drinks and such.  For awhile, we stood around and talked to each other and tried to eavesdrop on others conversations to figure out if we could find anyone who spoke English.  I tried to talk to one group of people because they were singing the lyrics of one of the songs in English.  However, that is a poor indicator of knowing any English – English songs are played in Europe all the time.  We were about ready to call it a night so I headed to the bathroom and heard the phrase, “go piss in the corner!”  It was then I knew I had found someone that spoke our language for once.

I met some guys named James, George and John (I think) that were from England.  I talked to them for a bit with the introduction being “You guys speak English? I have been looking for anyone that speaks my language all night!”  They found it funny because they were pretty much in the same situation.  The group they were with was on a bachelor’s party for one of the members and they were planning on partying in Biarritz for the next 4 days.  Needless to say, we made friends pretty quickly and followed them over to the rest of their group.

The party consisting of a strip of tents with bars and restaurants in each