Road Trip!

Last weekend, my friends and I rented the smallest, cheapest car available and decided to drive along the Basque coast, stopping along the way until we reached our destination of Biarritz.

Our first stop was Getaria, a quaint, traditional Basque town with narrow streets and a beautiful port.

The next destination was San Sebastián. Since arriving in Bilbao everyone has told me that I need to visit San Seb as it’s so beautiful. After finally going I can say that the recommendations were deserved, and I’m planning on going again when it’s warmer. Despite the weather not being great, the beach still looked stunning, as did the old town, and the food.

We finally got to Biarritz where, due to limited funds, we stayed the night in the car (definitely won’t be doing that again). After not very much sleep we explored the town of Biarritz, which was truly magical with lots of little coves and walkways to some of the rocks.

On the way back we stopped in Saint Jean de Luz, a small French town about 7 miles from the Spanish border. Both Biarritz and Saint Jean are in the French Basque Country, so it was great to see the French twist on Basque culture. All of the restaurants and cafés had Basque names but the town itself looked typically French. I personally thought that it looked exactly like the town in the film Chocolat.

We didn’t have the best experience, however, with the French Basque food as upon ordering risotto we were surprised when it came out in a shot glass, black, and containing squid.

After spending 2 days in France I have realised how much French I have forgotten, so it was probably my poor, broken French which got us into the situation where we were eating squid risotto. My French has become so bad in fact that, when asked where I was from by a nice French woman I was unable to remember possibly one of the easiest French words. While panicking, I shouted England and ran away. Despite studying French for longer than I can remember, I definitely lived up to the ignorant English stereotype at that moment in time.