bonjour france

we left spain around 10 am and headed out of town. Not sure what hwy to take or how to get there, we just followed what we thought were the right signs. The surfboards were a little more secure this time since we got a different rack. We knew we had taken the right route when going through a toll booth , the lady said "merci" Laurie got so excited, she said back "merci, merci , we are in france" the lady laughed.

we drove in to Biarritz and not sure where to go, we found a cute little hotel. it really was the first hotel we could park at, since the streets were filled. we found out there was a festival down on the beach, that night. we had a fabulous lunch. I had a salad with tuna and anchoives, laurie had a fish plate with three different kinds of fish, two huge prawns, and a bunch of muscles. she ordered nicely. we went back to the hotel, saw the surf and decided it was time to go surfing. I was going to swim, and laurie surf. So we marched down to the ocean and we got ready to surf, and we were told , no surf. The waves look good, there was one person out , we asked, "why no surf" . The young man said red flag. well the red flag means its to dangerous to go into the ocean. in biarritz they created a break water and the high tide does not allow you to make a safe exit from the water. even though we were both good swimmers it was not safe, due to the side current and the lack of exits . they told us to come back at night.
we walked into town and found the surfboard repair shop. we then went back and had some drinks at a cute little place with a view.
that night laurie put on her wetsuit at 8:30 and i put on a shirt and shorts. she went surfing, and i went to the festival, they were in the same place. The surf spot is called Cote des Basques. Laurie caught some huge waves, i watched her fly down the faces, as i drank good belgium beer and ate french tapas. we were both happy. I saw her get out of the water , so i chased her up the stairs. we showered up and went to dinner at 11 at night. it was not dark till 10:30 which laurie was so impressed by.

The next day we surfed in the morning. I rented a board and then went body surfing. the waves had punch like el porto and i would watch laurie go flying by, as i pearled after pearl. i decided to bodysurf. The water is pretty dirty. Lots of plastic and junk in the water. Its pretty gnarly. Laurie remembers paddling into a plastic bag. we will need our anti-oxidants on this leg of the trip. we took my board in for repairs. It was a german guy, who kept saying he did good german work. we then walked all around town, and out to the sea rocks, and up and over the hill. It was just beautiful. The scenery is amazing. Laurie is in love with the hydragenias growing wild everywhere, with huge flowering stalks. we had a nice dinner and then we settled down to watch the world cup. Today we head to hossegor for some more surf. Laurie had read two australians surf biographies and they both talked about hossegor.
ovrua