Another Weekend Getaway

I think my recent trip to Greece was exactly what I needed to get my mind into the "let's see the world while we can" mindset. I have been wanting to do all this traveling, and after I saw how easy and fun it was with Greece, I just decided to keep it up.

This past week, Chandra told me that she had the upcoming weekend free. I looked at her and said "alright, where we going?" We got online that day and found some really cheap overnight train tickets to the south of France. We booked them the next day and 2 days after that we were on our way! We weren't really sure where we were going but had chosen a city that looked cute from pictures online. The train left at 10:30 friday night and we got into St Jean de Luz at 6am Saturday morning.

It was literally still dark outside and when we walked out of the train had to make a decision as to which way to turn (right or left, and having no clue what was in either direction). We chose left and then just started following signs for "La Plage" (the beach). So here we are in a tiny tourist town in March at 6 in the morning. It was beyond dead. Nothing was open, there were no cars, no people, NOTHING. We walked for quite awhile and found a little shop where we could buy a map. Eventually finding our way to the beach, we parked out on a park bench for a while and ate what food we had left from our train trip. When the sun finally decided to start lighting up the world, we started walking along the beach and looking for a hotel. We found several but nobody was working yet. We took the time to walk around and take lots of pictures. Finally, once it was after 8 and places started opening, we went in to gas stations, hotels, cafes, etc trying to figure out what we could do. We knew one thing: we wanted to rent motos. After lots of different answers, we eventually decided that this town wasn't going to be too successful. We found a cafe, ordered a hot chocolate, and figured out what to do next.

While we were on the train, we noticed that almost everyone had gotten off at the stop just before ours, a town called Biarritz. We asked our waiter if there was a bus to Biarritz and he gave us directions to the stop. We got there and had to wait an hour and a half for the next one, so we found another cafe to sit in while we waited.



By 10:30 we were on the bus and heading towards Biarritz, still having no idea what we would find when we got there. We got off at an area that seemed "hopping" and just started walking around looking for a hotel. We were so sick of carrying our bags around that all we wanted was to find somewhere to leave them and not have to worry about them. We found several right in one area and just picked the cheapest one. We got an adorable tiny room for 40 euros. We had to share a shower room, but it was just with 2 other girls (that we never even saw). We asked the lady at the desk about renting motos and she gave us a flier for a place down the street. We found it without any problems and within 20 minutes were on our way. We rode along the coast, stopping every 5 seconds to take pictures. The town was soooo cute. Big houses, cliffs, rock formations, a lighthouse, bridges, tucked away beaches, sidewalk cafes, and just enough people to feel comfortable.




Our plan was to just stay along the coast, but we soon came across a problem. All the streets became one way and not the way we wanted to go. We kept turning around and backtracking, having no idea what to do. We pulled over and were laughing about how we were already lost when 2 guys on feet started laughing at us too. Assuming they didn't speak english we were being maybe a little rude. We left them and kept riding and 15 seconds later we passed them again. This time they spoke english to us and asked if we needed help. Turns out they were from Australia and were in the area for work. They suggested a direction to us to get us on the main road. We were looking for a pizza place. Somehow we all ended up eating together and hanging out for the day.


They were really cool and showed us around. We followed them in their car and us on our bikes and went to the next town over and walked along the river, watched all sorts of crazy people (there was a big rugby match that night and everyone was pretty excited about it). After all that Chandra and I moto'd back to our hotel.



The next day, one of the guys (dave) had invited us to go to spain with him. After much debate, we decided to do it because we wouldn't have another opportunity like it. Spain was about an hour away and we ended up in the town of St Sebastian or something.
It was so cute, a little fishing village where the river meets the ocean. We walked all around the town,, ate lunch at a cafe, did a little shopping (i didn't buy anything this time!!!), and found the beach where we stuck our feet in the water. We took so many pictures and had such a fun relaxing day. We headed back to France where chandra and I did some more moto-ing and photo shoots. :) Since it was sunday, we had to take the motos back by 6 and our train didn't leave until almost 11 that night. Since the train stopped in Biarritz and St Jean de Luz, we assumed we would be able to get on at either spot. We decided not to risk it and asked at the train station. go figure, that only the French would say you had to get on where your ticket said. So that meant we had to find our way back to st jean de luz by bus or taxi, on a sunday, during the off season. We spent like 2 hours trying to find the right bus stop and when we finally did we still had like 2 hours to kill. We ended up back in St Jean de Luz by 8:30 and found a cafe where we sat until 10:30. We got on the train and headed back to Paris. It was funny because all the same people were on the train that we had seen on Friday. I guess it's a common thing to do. We got back to paris at 6am and got to our houses by 7, and ready to start work by 8! longest day of my life...

And now, here are some pictures: