bonjour francia

(Biarritz)

So this past week was amazing! For our culture class we traveled to northern Spain (Pais Vasco) for a few days and then decided that since we were so close to France we would just hop the border and spend the rest of the weekend in the beautiful city of Biarritz.

So we left Wednesday morning on our bus and stopped at a bodega (wine cellar) in La Rioja on the way up. After getting a tour from one of the guides on how they made and where they kept the wine, we got to do a little wine tasting ourselves. I ACTUALLY found a wine that I don't hate. I don't remember exactly what it is called but it was a mixture between white wine and red wine.

After the winery, we got back on our bus and headed to Bilbao, where we would be spending our first night. We checked into our hotel and then our professor took us to the downtown area where we had our first experience with the Basque country's "pintxos." Pintxos are basically the same thing as tapas, which I guess could be comparable to appetizers in the US. So we explored a few different pintxo bars- each one seeming to be better and better.

(PINTXOS)

The next morning we headed to the Guggenheim museum...I think my favorite part about the museum was the actual building and structure itself. The exhibit at the time inside was composed of objects created from old sinks, pipes and bike pieces...not exactly my cup of tea.

We then stopped at Guernica (the city that was bombed where Picasso got his inspiration from for his painting) and toured the town hall and then had prolly the best lunch EVERRR. We had a 5 course meal and I have never been so full!

After that we got back on the bus and headed to San Sebastian, which is supposed to be one of the most gorgeous cities in Spain. But of course the whole time we were there it was rainy and cold (side note: according to our senora, this is the coldest winter Spain has had in FOREVER- perfect.) But we once again explored the downtown area, did a little window shopping and had some more famous "pintxos." The next day we headed to the Chillida museum with large sculptures and then our class trip was up.

So then our trip to France began! We took a metro to the border of France and from there took a train about a half hour to the city of Biarritz. We stayed in this cute little bed and breakfast that was a two minute walk from the beach...and the best part was: we had sun! Although it was still pretty chilly, the sun made a huge difference.

So we were pretty tired that day but we walked around a little and had lunch/dinner. The next day we got breakfast in bed (greatest chocolate croissant!) and then decided to do a little shopping. Believe it or not, I caved in and got a Long Champ bag...it's actually pretty cute though. :)

The hardest part about Biarritz was not being able to understand a SINGLE word though...besides bon jour and au revoir I just had to smile at people and hope someone spoke english.

On Sunday we had to head back to Madrid- and even though we seemed pretty close it took us 12 hours to get home...from the train station to the metro, metro to train station, 5 hour train ride to madrid and a metro ride home...

But I think this trip has been one of my favorites so far! Bearritz was just absolutely beautiful and we had a really fun group!