Blast from the past
We heard about a fun event nearby for Christmas eve. The "White bear club", created in 1929, is one of the oldest associations in Biarritz. Two hundred members bathe at least three times a week, from January 1 to December 31, and organise a special Christmas dip on Christmas eve open to all. Cuong loves his cold water dips so we decided it'd be a fun thing to do and a good day for me to go back to places full of memories: the Biarritz, Anglet, Bayonne (nicknamed BAB) trio. Now I'm not a fan of any waters below 35 °C, but on the day, this was the forecast. Crazy hot, right? I figured that was doable.
Ha Biarritz.. going down Port-Vieux Street on the first day of summer and taking our first glimpse at the ocean at the bottom to start a month of fun! My sister and I had hours and hours of fun exploring rocks, roasting on beaches and playing in mad waves, our stomach red and scraped bare from salt and bodysurfing on cheap Polystyrene boards.
We sometimes took with us one of our younger cousin to fight the 5 metre high waves but she could barely swim so we would each old one of her hand, then often be torn from each other and tossed all the way to the beach by powerful crashing waves. In the aftermath, we'd lookout for her in the sandy foam, scoop her up and she'd been coughing her lungs out and giggling at the same time with a huge smile on her face, then hop, we'd be back into the waves!
Though we liked to try out all beaches, our goto one was called llbarritz. I chose not to go back as nostalgia can hit a bit hard sometimes, we had too many good times there. So instead and before "the swim", Cuong, Didi and I went strolling along the other beaches...
Beaches for all
I have been banging on great beaches on the French atlantic coast but in my view, Biarritz has the greatest mightiest beaches and waves in the whole of France. The waves are strong, even on mild days like Christmas eve, with uneven currents, making it one of the trickiest and loved surfing spot in the world.
The extra factor is the huge variety of beach experiences, all within walking distance and bordered by a high-up scenic twiddly coastal promenade that goes on for miles and miles all the way to neighbouring beach towns and that lets you have magnificent views of the whole coast. Quite a few interesting buildings on the way too, castles, lighthouses (see the one in the background here), huge basque houses...
When I say the ocean is mighty here, it truly is, waves on stormy days crash all the way up the top of the cliffs you can see in the picture below, and all the rocks that are uncovered here at low tide are not visible at high tide, even on good weather days.
The next two pictures are of the 'Plage de la Côte des basques' (Basque Coast beach), pro-surfers only there is almost no sand part and very strong currents!
The Christmas swim, Port-Vieux beach
So, after our stroll, Cuong and I headed to Port-Vieux beach which had calm waves that day. We whipped our clothes off and took turns (Didi wouldn't swim!) for a 10 minute swim each in the 14° C waters. For contrast, I am adding a picture of the same beach from a previous Christmas, as you can see, the ocean can get a lot crazier on the same beach, though it is one of the safest on the coast!
I went in I first so I wouldn’t have the opportunity to chicken out, and 10 minutes before noon when the official Christmas eve bath was supposed to start. You can’t really chicken out anyway due to other bathers' peer pressure, and with a sunny 20° C outside there really is no excuse.
I’d love to say it was terribly hard but it really wasn't! The dipping-in part was the worst but after 2 minutes of manic out-of-breath breast strokes more akin to a chicken-flapping than a zen swim, the burn kicked in and I felt great. Except a couple of grandmas from the White Bear Club and I got into a fit of giggles that almost drowned us on the swim back when we realised that while we weren't very efficient swimming in the cold and it was still too deep to stand up, about 100 people were lined up ready to run in while we needed to get out!
We somehow managed to weave our way out, great fun! Here's a vid with sound for the atmosphere, a basque Banda played some brass tunes which encouraged swimmers to get in.
Then it was Cuong’s turn and, as expected, he wasn’t phased at all 🙄. He crawled his way forth and back, casually walked out and just noted that the water was twice warmer than the 7° waters of the Cambridge outdoor swimming pool (when he had come back from that swim, he'd had to lay on our electric blanket for half an hour to defrost!).
After our dip, we headed to the Biarritz small but lively town center for a lunch in the sun. Aside of attracting surfers, Biarritz used to be a top destination for well-off people before the Maldives became more fashionable, so Cuong noticed it looked "just like Luxembourg but near the beach"!!!
We then headed to Bayonne which was enjoyable, lot of pedestrian streets, shops, lively but not quite as much as San Sebastián and a bit further from the beach. Houses are very much in the basque theme: white, red and green...
All in all, we concluded our ideal city would be San Sebastián for its old town quarters, mashed with the breathtaking Biarritz coast!
But of all the cities of the Basque country we visited so far (we're only missing St Jean de Luz that we will visit next weekend before our departure for Barcelona), I do love Biarritz best because of all the family memories that it brings back, quality time with grandparents, uncles, aunts, my sister, my cousins (sometimes we'd be 6 kids and 12 adults in the family home!), but also my parents who would probably have much preferred walking or visiting places to sitting hours on the beach while we had fun swimming. Instead, they patiently gave us all these fantastic fun time! 😁
I have a feeling we'll be back there, perhaps at the end of our great trip on our way back up. 😎
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