June 3, 2025
Our first full day in Biarritz. We all slept in a bit and had a light breakfast before heading out to explore. It was overcast but in the mid 60s so nice to finally feel cool while walking around. The area around our apartment is really nice and feels old world. Various little shops all within a block or two; seafood, bakery, butcher, fresh produce, wine shop, and tiny grocery store.
We planned to walk to the lighthouse but half way there realized it didn’t open until 2PM so we changed course and walked the other way along the coast. Along the coast are much larger homes and hotels. They were doing work to the beach, I assume getting it ready for the upcoming Summer peak season, but there were still surfers out there. We signed the boys up for an hour surf lesson on Thursday so they can get a taste for it.
We kept walking south along the coast and stopped at various lookout points. The boys tried to take a picture with the lighthouse in the background putting up 5 fingers for lighthouse number 5 of our trip. Then we moved on to a small fishing port searching for a bathroom, luckily there are quite a few public restrooms along the water.
The fishing port was right on the ocean and protected by various man-made concrete walls to protect the boats. We saw a few boats coming in from the ocean and the port had various shops and restaurants that were starting to open for the day. We will try to come back for dinner or to shop for dinner at home one night. Everyone was getting hungry so we headed back into the city to search for lunch.
We found a nice place for lunch and sat outside. We quickly started Uno and got through a few games before our food came. The boys had “crabby patties” which came out as just the burger patty…. Somehow they ate it once we cut it up and put some ketchup on. Kayleen and I ordered the pavlova to share for desert. We have been getting them to compare to the ones she made for the holidays before we left.
We headed back to the apartment after lunch. Kayleen stopped at the grocery store and I took the boys to the park next to our apartment. All of the shops close midday, typically from 1-4PM, and reopen till ~7PM so more dinner shopping will be required later.
We threw the rugby ball at the park making the dots on the ground different levels. Ollie was very into it. Lenny a little less so but still refused to miss his turns to let Ollie keep going. We went back up to have a snack and do home school.
Home school went mostly OK until Ollie finished his letter to his old class and I told him to rewrite it neatly. He refused no matter how much I tried to get him to do it, eventually turning to tears. Kayleen took him shopping to finish getting stuff for dinner and Lenny completed his word and started to read a new book with me.
Kayleen and Ollie returned with all the food for dinner. They got the leeks for free because at checkout the shop keeper said they didn’t look great so he would not charge them.
We attempted to head to the lighthouse again but when we started walking we realized it closed before we would arrive. This sent Lenny into a full tailspin. Screaming and crying even though we were going to go back to the park for a while instead. We played more games with the rugby ball and a ninja obstacle course challenge before heading up for dinner.
Kayleen and Ollie had gotten mussels and Vive fish (Weever Fish) for dinner. Once they bought the fish from the shop they got to watch it get filleted into two big pieces. It was very delicious with the free leeks!
The boys had the leftover pasta for dinner and Ollie added a bunch of mussels, Lenny refused. We told Lenny this would mean no desert if he didn’t try one but he still refused. When we enforced the no desert he went into a full meltdown and threw a weak punch into my shoulder. He was swiftly put in his pajamas, teeth brushed, and in bed.
