After breakfast in a cafe opposite the Pompidou Centre the taxi
arrived promptly at 10am to take us to Parnasse Station for the 5 hour
train ride to Biarritz. It took some creative loading to fit 2 bikes,
four suitcases and four passengers into the small minivan, but somehow
it was accomplished. The French TGV train is impressive and after
leaving the urban sprawl of Paris we silently sped (210 kph)through
the rolling French countryside, passing through places with familiar
names such as Poitiers and Bordeaux. We pulled into the Biarritz
station on schedule at 5:20 pm and were met by one of the other
members of "The Cluster" who had arrived earlier. No amount of
creative loading could get all our luggage into his Fiat minivan, so
we left Noel at the station with some of the bags while we drive to
the nearby airport to pickup our Hertz rental - a Ford Galaxy minivan.
It is to be the vehicle that Lorraine will drive for the next 10 days
and is diesel (of course) with a manual, 6 speed transmission
(interesting). It is new and spacious and seems to drive very well
back to the hotel - after remembering to collect Noel back at the
station with the rest of the luggage.
Biarritz proves to be something of a revelation. It is perched on the
Atlantic coast just north of the border with Spain and is in the
Basque (and Bordeaux) region of France. It is a significant holiday
resort and has a downtown area simply buzzing with hotels,
restaurants, bars, and people.
It seems quite classy - perhaps just a
notch or two below the Riviera.There are winding small streets through
the CBD down to the shoreline which is generally rocky, but with a
rather fine looking beach. There is even a half-respectable surf
rolling in, and some of the others have already tried it and thought
it ok (?). We meet the rest of The Cluster and after assembling the
bike (it seems to have survived again) we all head out to dinner at
7:30. The town is FULL of people, there is live music in the square,
and a fireworks display at 11pm - when it was dark enough!! Our hotel
room (Hotel Le President) overlooks one of the main squares and the
partying rages on until the street sweepers move in at 6am. There is
definitely a 'schoolies' week whiff to it!
It was good to meet the others and their wives/partners - but not to
hear the various horror stories of lost/delayed bags and damaged
(hopefully not too badly) bikes. Sunday morning we meet in the parking
lot and assemble the bikes.
Only a few minor issues that are quickly
cleared up and most of the group head to the beach. We are all quite
impressed with Biarritz - its tidiness, quaintness and the quality of
the ocean water and beach. The beach doesn't get crowded until about
noon - probably due to the late night partying so most of the group
take a dip. Biarritz is really the surfing capital of Europe, and
there are quite a few surfers out catching a fairly clean 1.5 shore
break.
Tonight we meet for general briefing and plan to hit the road (not
literally) at 8 am tomorrow (Monday)
Allez!
