Biarritz / Saint-Jean-de-Luz

I didn't get very far: Only 50 km northeast of San Sebastián I enter French territory again. Biarritz is known for its wild surf beaches, white houses with colorful shutters, haute cuisine, and high prices.

For the first time, my host is not a local. Even after 20 years in France, you can still hear the Italian in Vincenzo. We talk wild in a mixture of Italian, Spanish, and French, which doesn't necessarily do my language skills good. But we get along well like this 😁.

Vincenzo is once again an extraordinary experience: He lives somewhere between chakras, subtle energy, didgeridoo, and singing bowls. He doesn't work so he can concentrate on his energy. He is modest and eats only once a day. It's a good thing France is a welfare state. I've heard a lot of people taking advantage of the system, but now I've also experienced it.

Vincenzo is a funny person, with a really positive "aura", but I quickly stop paying attention to his explanations about energy or what Tantra really is, so I make long excursions and get to know the area even better.

From closed hiking trails to old fortresses, overcrowded buses that only cost €1.20 here, to my favorite spot overlooking Biarritz, everything is included.

But what impressed me the most was the sea here. It is so wild, with waves several meters high, strong currents, yellow sand, and rugged cliffs. My first attempt to swim immediately alarms the lifeguards who whistle for me to go into the supervised area. Oops, I didn't know. I can hold on to "Today I won't get my hair wet" for just two minutes, then the sea swallows my hair tie and throws me wildly through the waves. It's a lot of fun but also somewhat eerie how strong the sea is. A few days later, 18 people are rescued from the sea by helicopter, so it really is as wild as it seemed to me.

The French Basque Country is so close to the Spanish one and yet so different: No green hills, but also with a similarly unique language. There are still pintxos (tapas), but more like the expensive imitation. By now, I'm quite good at dealing with dingy apartments and exhausting people, but that also makes me look forward to my own four walls and a clean bed! 😅