Honeymoon Part 1 (St. Jean-de-Luz)

We returned at midnight last night from our beach vacation to St. Jean-de-Luz, a small beach town in Southwestern France. In the heart of Basque country, this town consists of a beautiful beach surrounded by the sprawling Pyrenees and a ton of restaurants serving chorizo, wine by the pitcher and other regional specialties. We spent our time strolling, reading our Kindles at the beach, and we took a day trip to Biarritz, which, we were told, is where young people go, as opposed to St. Jean-de-Luz, where old people go. Regardless, we loved this little town (maybe even more than "hip" Biarritz) and had an extremely relaxing 3 days together.

Our favorite meal was at Boinga, where we had a tasting starter of 4 entrees (which in France are appetizers), of crab with avocado, cod with a pesto sauce, gazpacho with couscous and langoustine, and shrimp with mayonaise. Our main course was a shared 15 inch cod roasted with sliced garlic and olive oil. One of many great nights so far.






In St. Jean-de-Luz, we had nice weather, but not "beach" weather, except one day. So much of our time was spent strolling the streets, checking out neighborhoods, and one day we took a boat ride across the bay to a different part of town. Filled with families braving the slightly chilly, but still beautiful day, the gentleman depicted below shows you just a small example of what a European beach is like. We were happy with our decision to stick to the city streets.

Back in Paris for one day, we spent the day with a long walk and lunch at a well-known brasserie, Chantier, with cheap food in a classic French atmosphere. Dinner was a simple salad, cheese, bread, olive combo followed by packing for our next adventure to Strasbourg!