Frigid Beach 2

Now we move on to the north west, to the Aquitaine coast. It's the basque region of France (on the border of Spain) and is allegedly the best surf turf in Europe. H had business in Bordeaux so I tagged along. 

Photo by H

The cliff walk was pretty dangerous because it was purely sand. This was during sunset, and the fog was slowly eating up the scenery next to me. 



The advantage of living here is the convenience of having the snow-covered Pyrenees to your west and a  number of good beaches to your north. And if your sole purpose of going to the beach is sunbathing, you don't have to worry about finding a place in the sand at Arcachon.

Photo by H

The Great Dune of Pyla or Dune du Pilat is a massive sandbar piled 107 meters high. It's a nice place to pretend you're in the desert... before tumbling off into either the pine forest or the Bay of Biscay.

From Travel.smart-guide.net

Further south, from the ancient port of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, you can spy the tops of La Rhune and the peaks of the Pyrenees from this spot at the lighthouse.

This Basque town is on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. 

This was my second time in Basque country, the first time was with a TV crew a few years ago.

15 lbs later, I came back - this time on the French side of the fence -  to get some chow!

Or eat, drink, pig out.

We had lunch at Bodega La Plancha, which wasn't in the Pays Basque (Basque Country) guidebook, but it was full of locals and Spanish tourists so we took it as a good sign. Esta muy delicioso!

Competing with Saint-Jean-de-Luz for tourists is Biarritz, which is known for its mad, mad waves.

It's a popular town for sailing enthusiasts and beach lovers, but it's also known for being pricey. The town center has nice shops and I fell in love with a dress that was way out of my price range, so I drowned my sorrows with a glass of juice and a gateau Basque.

The Grand Plage (big beach) is behind the big rock on the left.
It's surrounded by cafes, restaurants and glace (ice cream) stalls so you can get a bite to eat even in your swim wear.

We went on a side trip to hopelessly cute Bayonne for a bottle of wine and to say a little prayer at the Cathedrale Sainte- Marie... sorry, no pictures without us ruining the scenery!!!

Bayonne's architecture is a mix of Basque, Roman and Gothic. During the Fetes de Bayonne, the people continuously drink for 5 days, release some cows in the streets and let God sort them out. It was the Jews who made Bayonne the chocolate capital of France.

While in Aquitaine, we squatted with H's friends who lived in Labenne, a quiet neighborhood with a street that leads straight to the beach.

Radical, dude.

There were more bunkers on this beach. As I mentioned in Frigid Beach, the Germans used to hole up in these things to ambush the Allied Forces... only the enemy never came. Decades later, it's like Planet of the Apes.

The waves were huge but inconsistent so all we could do was play chicken with the sea foam.

I tried to be last to run.

And we played with S's baby.

Darn cute.

6 months baby, yeah!

We've made it through the half-year mark!

And already I feel nostalgic.

My lovely nanay.

G, in her equally successful blue and piña motif.

C reads for us at the chapel.

H's mom can't contain her tears. Neither could H.

My brother and cousin, shouting "Mabuhay ang bagong kasal!" through the streets of Gigouzac.

Our flight attendants announcing that cocktails are over.

And dinner would soon be served.

J oversees passport and ticket check.

And although I know I'd be hunted down for this, I can't help but wonder who's next?

V & A?

J & A?

Or my cousin and his movie idol? 

Chika lang, A and J!!! There was a bevy of awesome twosome pictures :)

Frigid Beach

The French coastline is divided into the Picardy, Normandy, Brittany, Vendee, Charentes, Aquitaine, Languedoc, Riviera and - depending on whom you ask - Corsican coasts. For some reason, even though it's been cold, we've been hitting the beach from summer through winter. 

As blogged earlier, we went sailing in the French Riviera last August with some friends of H's.

Some of the scenery (like Cassis) I saw in winter, two years earlier. 

There's the restaurant where I introduced H to my friends as my boyfriend :)

Sometimes we would sleep in ports, like in Toulon or Marseille.

But the rest of the time, we would anchor near the beaches and let the Mediterranean cradle us to sleep.

I have it on good intelligence that Bridget Bardot lives in one of the beaches behind H.

After the wedding, most of our out-of-town trips were to the different coasts of France. 

The first was to the estuarine shore of Picardy, where his grandparents live.

It opens to the English Channel, and would swell and ebb in the time it takes you to have lunch.

The belle epoque village of Mers-Les-Bains, starting to be cold but there were still people trying to get a last-minute tan on the beach.

One special feature of the northern coast is the number of WWII German bunkers left standing on the cliffs, waiting for the British assault that never came.

The water was freezing cold a few months later, when we drove to the extreme north of France, crossing Belgium for a few minutes so we could have a coffee on the very windy beach with his godfather.

Back in French territory, we saw more German bunkers.  The French were forced at gunpoint to make them.

Over the sand dunes.

On the horizon sits England, and if the fog had lifted there would be a view of the white cliffs of Dover.

Not exactly frigid beach related, but this was in Roubaix where H spent most of his childhood, seconds after I threw a branch in the frozen lake and whistled away.

More frigid beach stories after I watch the Oscars :)

Bonne Annee

Last Sunday in Chinatown was a bang!

Apologies for the quality, this was shot with a phone camera... 

And for some reason, the audio doesn't sync with the video midway :( Big mystery to me.