Biarritz y le Pays Basque - Monday, September 26th, 2011

        This past weekend, all of the US students took a road trip to the northeast - up the coast across the French border to the little beach town, Biarritz. This entire part of France and Spain is Basque Country, a historically autonomous region that still calls for independence. Bilbao is the largest city in the region and often considered the “capital”. The Basque Country is a stunningly beautiful part of the world – we drove through mountain towns and beach resorts, passing by lush green hills and along dazzling oceanside cliffs. Basque pride permeates the area, with independence graffiti scribbled on walls and bumper stickers shaped like Basque Country overlaid with the Basque flag. Basque pride was much more overt in these areas than in Bilbao which surprised me at first. But, I suppose the big city has more diversity among its residents, diluting the culture a bit. 

A Basque Pride Bumber Sticker

The basque... something.

Ad for traditional Basque game.

Roughly translated to: "The Most Important Ingredient is the Basque Country"

      Once across the border, we stopped in St. Jean du Luc, a quaint beach town. There we wandered a bit and ate authentic, original style French macaroons that were delicately crunchy on the outside and deliciously moist and almondy in the chewy middle. Afterwards, we continued up the coast to Biarritz. We arrived late in the evening and by the time we found a restaurant, it was 10pm. Being used to the Spanish way of life where dinner is at 10pm, we didn't think much of the late hour. However, we quickly learned that dinner timing is a cultural difference between the French and Spanish, even while still in Basque Country. The restaurants had already stopped serving food and only bars were open. One kind woman offered to serve us croque monsieur from the bar kitchen, and since we didn't seem to have any other options, we settled for this quintessential French food. A croque monsieur is a simple sandwich made of ham and cheese and the four of us ordered them from our French accented waiter. I don't eat pork, so I asked if he could serve mine without the ham, to which he responded "no, eet iz impossible". We all giggled, but since any other option was impossible, I ordered the sandwich as is. It was funny to us because earlier that day, we had been discussing the use of the word “impossible” and decided it’s often lost in translation. Instead of saying, “No, I can't do that”, which is what our waiter meant, many Spaniards and French declare "No, it is impossible." We understand their message, but to us it seems dramatic and inaccurate. After all, many of the requests technically are possible. But, it’s so commonly used that I’ve started to giggle each time I hear it. A few minutes later, my croque monsieur with ham arrived and I opened it up, peeled out the ham and giggled again, thinking “Eet iz possible!"

Traditional Macaroons on the beach = yum and yay.

Kristen, about to eat her croque monsieur, and my soon to be ham-less croque monsieur.

 
The rest of our time in Biarritz, we enjoyed walking along the beach, discovering the night life, eating food beside croque monsieurs and playing in the surf. Surfing is prominent all along this part of the Atlantic coast - surfers and surfing brands are everywhere. Even in Bilbao, Quicksilver, Roxy, and Billabong are commonly worn clothing brands and easily found in shops. Biarritz was actually the first European surf spot, and surfing has become a big part of the culture there, with good reason - the surf was powerful and the waves were huge. We rented boards for an hour and played in the white wash but even that was fiercely strong. But, any excuse to get into the water is a happy one for me, and despite the slight battering, I enjoyed it. Sunday afternoon soon rolled around, and we drove back through the beautiful countryside to prepare for the week of classes ahead.

Neal, Kristen, Me and Jess along the Basque Coast.

Kristen, Jenny and Neil along the coast of Biarritz, watching surfers

The name of a random cafe

Biarritz IS a rendez-vous with the ocean!