Biarritz - April 2005

Whilst the girls were away in Spain with their Aunt, the rest of the family took advantage of an offer in The Telegraph for a train ticket to anywhere in France for £50.

We picked Biarritz as we'd never been to this part of the country before.

We stayed at the Hotel Atalaye, which I think has been fairly reviewed by some recent guests.



The Hotel's owner could not have been more friendly. He greeted us warmly and set us up each day with a cheery smile. He even offered his Hotel for my Tilley Hat, but I think he was just joking.



Whatever, I've still got my hat and he has his hotel.

Biarritz has a spectacular coastline as well as some interesting man made features. The bridge in the picture was constructed by M. Eiffel (we saw his other, more vertical, structure on the way home).



Although it was warm and sunny there was no chance of me dipping a toe into the Atlantic as it was too cold. However, there were a good number of hardy locals that went swimming for half an hour or more.

We shared the town with the visiting supporters of Munster Rugby FC. I thought I was a keen sports fan, but the local support for the home team, Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque seemed to involve the whole town. The shops were decorated in the club's colours, and one had made a pretty good guess at the final score:



In fact, it finished 19 - 10 to Biarritz.