My parents arrived in France in winter, and ironically have been installed in a holiday village by the sea I do not like to return there before the grass is thick and the dunes swings in car tire squeal in unison. Few images of these few months if not through the prism of their memories. The first snow, feeling unknown and seafood served with finger bowls, highly exotic. I wonder what my parents dreamed without money and without a word of French. The first "real" housing was on the floor of a large house with blue shutters. The rent was not worth much, the price of one room where they huddled on the couch at three in bottle green velvet. There, I remember Saturday nights, because there was Jean Rochefort Disney Channel I loved watching sitting on the floor with a bowl of rice soup. I was (and still am) a fan of Jean Rochefort absolute!
I also remember the owner who lived on the ground floor, a kind of cantankerous grandmother who came for the rent still too early and had two monster Collies barking tremendously strong. I remember my parents started to work, incredible stuff, like pasting red and blue stripes on model aircraft landing in their hundreds in cartons or sort thousands of caps of perfume bottles in excluding those who had a default. My mother made me promise to do a job a little more chic, doctor it would be nice, especially since I always wanted more books and she was convinced that the doctors had books from floor to ceiling.
One day we had to make new boxes, which were eventually few, and we moved into a new apartment they told me to shut up address when possible because they were ashamed to live in a squalid housing project. I had a pink room, they bought me the white furniture, I loved my desk drawers and outdated. There was a blue kitchen, blue a bit dirty, a little sad, a blue that is now my mother hates that color. I had my first Christmas tree in the room, my mother began working, she went in the evening, returned in the morning and made me recite poems and multiplication tables on the way to school she traveled with me hand in hand and eyes half shut from exhaustion. But they were happy to buy one for my library birthday and a market (with a scale, a cash register, fruits and vegetables in plastic and even a roast chicken!) at Christmas.
My father started to work as he was able to replace the two horses with a cream-colored metallic R5, but he was very unhappy at work, he had to renounce his scientific aspirations, it has never been able to resume his studies interrupted in Cambodia and he choked back his pride every morning with his coffee he drank black.
All this was not without reward. One day they began to see small houses, not too far from the college where I was going back in sixth, and in early summer, we were able to leave the kitchen blue, really murky stairwell and balcony in concrete to settle down in a white house with a garden, a terrace, a quince before the kitchen window and roses at the entrance. My parents were delighted by the details quite touching the end, as the ceilings papered rooms, bathtubs and tiles in the bathroom. They were really happy, they invited friends, what they had denied for years, and my mother made mountains of spring rolls, waffles and beef skewers with lemongrass on the barbecue terrace. I started
keeping a journal in that house, in a purple book early. I was telling the boys were certainly very complicated, that the braces were a Satanic invention and really, it was not just, A. was much prettier than me, even if it was a beauty a bit empty. Concerns were finally futile.
When I returned to my parents, even if I am a little sad when I think back to my hesitation and my teenage boredom and endless noise, although I am not always agree with biases of their decoration, I am infinitely reassured to see them installed there, the ones who landed in France in the middle of winter in the 80, never imagined one day owning a small space, a piece of land.
The last hours spent in the old apartment on the quays Rennes were a bit difficult. Following our chronic lack of organization, there were still some thirty cartons to transport ourselves after the passage of movers, and then he had to clean up. At three o'clock in the morning, after a kebab sitting cross-legged on the floor of the desert, it became necessary to go to the dump, ahem. I forgot that in my old office cabinets, closets in height, those I never opened, there were all the books, all notes, records, files, schematics, feverishly stacked to the boarding . A mountain of a hundred pounds of paper. I kept small tinkering, for resale and for the memory (including the directory where I had very thick compiled everything that we should absolutely not forget) but the rest ended up in large bins, between a restaurant and a bicycle shop. It spun me chills to throw it all these hours, those dirty memories.
I look forward to empty the boxes into which we zig-zague perilously, to paint the boards of my office to cover the paper tray of the piano stool retapisser, choose the magnets for the fridge! And then I'll show you ... The road was long! ****
Bonus! Because there are girls who take their lover to Biarritz in the fall, my favorite (in one of my favorite cities).
Addresses and links at the end of the ticket.
A Hotel Beaulieu , perfectly located between the beach and the center of the Basque town, think to ask for a room with view and balcony, because they are larger and is always nice to sit a bit to watch the waves on the rock of the Virgin and children surf club who train on the tiny beach right in front of the hotel. I do not bathe there because there are too many people, families, but I love the big clock just above the stone columns.
If we have often discussed with the night watchman, who is a former piano tuner, we never took breakfast at the hotel. If the day looks calm and voluptuous, there was no hesitation, he must go Miremont , order a hot chocolate, toast (bread sandwich house) coming grilled and buttered, and jam. I like to do this before a trip to the lighthouse example. Once arrived there, we take photos of hydrangeas, we observe the fishermen at the foot of the cliffs and I am able to spend hours watching the scenery. If the program is loaded (like Well if you went to Bayonne? or you want to go to Guéthary? -actually I do not like Guéthary. Neither Saint Jean de Luz), drink coffee or tea bottom of the hotel and we bought pastries on the way always Miremont.
In general, when we go to the lighthouse, we likes to stop at Bookstore to buy a book you read in the afternoon on the beach. They also have a very nice selection of Children and booksellers are enough riders.
Sometimes we go to the cinema because it is Art and testing, and there is always a good film program. Pending the meeting, you can munch on buttons Adam on the site (but I'm not a fan of their pastries) or drag the Naked Lunch , subversive bookstore in a small street opposite the cinema, where they had the good idea of installing a sofa. In talking with the boy who was working there this afternoon, we decided to go cool off in Lulu Nantes , a tearoom, antique XXth century, where smoothies are delicious, spicy ginger when you order an orange-carrot-apple. Just next to a nice store wooden models with a lamp-fish impressive.
In late afternoon, when the film for the Diana F + is complete, you can always sourcing to In the middle , which offers lots of models Lomo of which also sells designer clothes pretty sharp in the middle of must-haves of the moment (a stack of Bensimon Liberty this summer). The owners of the store is super nice. Other adorable clothes await you Lily of the Valley , pretty shop in the front Cerulean. There are bags Polder, jackets Isabel Marant , pretty nice shirts and skirts. In the basement, vintage clothing in the middle of old fashion magazines and antique radios. Again, the vendors are very friendly. On the way
des Halles, if you go to the market, three stops possible. The first The round water for wooden trays, lamps Jieldé green water, Scandinavian dishes, seating designs, placemats Robert hero and a bunch of pretty objects. The second home Arostéguy where I almost come away with a huge canned tuna belly with case was the most beautiful effect, but there are also foie gras, pâtés Espelette, the Basque sausage, jams, shortbread local fruit juices in attractive bottles ... And Mariage Freres tea if you forgot your bags at home! The third call has nothing to do, that Denim Gallery for different jeans and tee shirts screenprinted chic and mischievous.
Les Halles are obviously unavoidable and I always dreamed of having a kitchen to prepare Biarritz beautiful fish and fresh vegetables arch. For consolation, there are refueling in Basque cheeses and meats for a delicious picnic. Right next to Les Halles, an institution in the early evening, the Comptoir du foie gras , which not only fatty liver, far away, but great tapas Tarama urchin or cheese and black cherry jam or just Pata Negra, finally there are twenty, it is very pleasant to nibble around large barrels that serve as tables to receive the sangria, the Basque cider, orange or pressed glass of champagne. Full of regulars, pretty cardigans, floral dresses and arty glasses kissing and exchange tips. Just next door, with an antique cookbooks from another time and Bar des Halles when the counter fatty liver no longer of places available. The selection of tapas is extensive, and they are delicious but the atmosphere is more family.
In the Rue Gambetta, next, there is a very nice grill and under the porch, if one goes a little tea room that I never could try but the decor is like and they are cheesecake and clafoutis.
To eat, to change a little, to also avail of the opportunity to cross the city when it is no longer in the center and enjoy the architecture of the villas Biarritz, there is always one evening during the holidays when we will dine at the Taj Mahal which, as its name does not indicate, is a restaurant held by Sri Lankans. Meet there lovers who love to travel, big teens before dancing, locals who know that the cheese naan and chicken Taj Mahal are too good. On returning, we can go have a dessert on the beach, such as a grapefruit and coconut ice at Dodin then settle on the sand a little off and enjoy the beauty of the night on ocean. We can not return right away and around the hotel to see the lights of Spain and the mountains a bit fuzzy on the Basque Coast, I can not count the number of evening strolls along the beach to speak without end. Sometimes
for a return of Anglet when you spend the afternoon at the beach (besides the ice cream truck Anglet is highly recommended, with an ice cream yogurt simple but so good, a bit tart) and this case, the return, we hurry to put the bags at the hotel and go down very quickly in the small cove of the Santa Maria , bar and restaurant just interesting for its wonderful view and tables in rocks. It's always nice to drink a mojito at night.
I do not know if the terrace is still there in the autumn but in August it is very nice dinner on the harbor in the Casa Juan Pedro . We stood in line while nibbling tapas and then dinner at the waterfront of simple things, squid and prawns, grilled squid in ink or monkfish English. A little later in the evening, if you're feeling peckish, you can make a chocolate crepe Little pancake and eat it while thinking of the delicious day just past.
I'm sure I forget the places I like but I know that if one is guided by his desires, people crossed the Native councils, we come inevitably to the coolest places. I love Biarritz it is both modern and obsolete, there is the spectacle of huge waves that do not always see in Britain and the nights are beautiful.
Hotel Beaulieu 3 Esplanade du Port-Vieux 05 59 24 23 59
Miremont 1 bis Place Clemenceau
Adam House 27 place Clemenceau
Bookstore 27 place Clemenceau
Naked Lunch 2 rue Jean Bart
Lulu Nantes 8 avenue Jaulerry
In the middle 11 rue Alcide Augey
Lily of the Valley 2 rue Simon Etcheverry
The circle in the water 6 rue Victor Hugo
Arostéguy 5 avenue Victor Hugo
Denim gallery 6 rue Victor Hugo
The counter foie gras 1 rue center
The bar market 8 rue des Halles
Santa Maria Old Port
Casa Juan Pedro on the dock of the Petit Port
Dodin Quai de la Grande Plage
Taj Mahal 10 avenue station
The little creperie Street Mazagran
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