Only Thing Better Than Paris...the Beach!

Only the beautiful beach and a flat just a block away could beat Paris!



As soon as we got off of the train, our kind new friends Matthew and Roman picked us up and drove us along the beach. We were instantly in love with St. Jean de Luz! If you read about the city on-line, you will read about all of the historic sites that we did not visit. Honestly, the only thing that the kids and I did during the day was go to the beach. The earliest that Tiare and I left the beach in the evening was 6 p.m. Atticus would leave earlier with Chris to go to the film festival





Tiare and Atticus got an ice cream almost everyday. Tiare's favorite flavor was Nutella--see her ice cream mustache below...



The other pictures that I didn't seem to take were of the topless woman at the beach. Ok, maybe I thought that I didn't really need a picture of them. But, I tell you it was a wonderful example of non-sexualized women's bodies. The young and beautiful, the average mom type, and the grandma were all there just enjoying their time at the beach confident and comfortable in their bodies. American women could learn a lot from them in my opinion! We simply explained to the kids that going topless was part of the French culture. They quickly accepted it, and it was a non issue for them just like it was for everyone else.

The little beach itself was so beautiful.





We had a great little place to eat right on the beach called La Casita--in France even the little dives by the beach serve amazing food--one of the best salads that I have ever had was from there! Tiare's favorite food was the French hamburger (hamburger patty with a fried egg on top and French fries). We also loved the waffles with Nutella and whipped cream! We ate there almost every night before the film festival.

The giant sea wall provided a lot of fun adventures too...





For those of you who may have forgotten, the entire reason why we went to France was because Chris got asked to show his film in a film festival there. Here's a still from his amazing film:



Here's Chris with some other filmmakers and judges and Bruno the organizer of the festival thinking deep thoughts as they await their press interviews.



Tiare felt totally comfortable lounging by Chris and his friends. She was drawing.




Here's Chris and the kids on stage introducing his film





We shared our flat in St. Jean de Luz with another family from Hawaii whose dad had a film in the festival. They had two boys, and Atticus just had a blast with one of the brothers! They would go to the festival each afternoon and just run around together all night until around 11 p.m. or so when it was finally time to go home. One night, we were there and I wanted to find Atticus for something so I asked the other mom if she had seen them. She said no, she didn't know where they were either. Well, we started looking, and guess where we found them...


At the bar just hanging out. You know where any almost-8 year old and 12 year old hang out. It was just a perfect example of relaxed vacation style parenting! Really, the little town was so safe feeling and everyone at the festival was just so chill it was unbelievable. Well, predictable when you've got a bunch of surfers. One night at the bar, there was a great band made up entirely of 14 year olds!



James was a judge at the film festival, and we had a great time hanging out with him too.



We made great friends with Pablo, one of the judges at the festival, and his wife Ana. They were from Spain, and so it was great to be able to speak Spanish with them--vs. fake it in French with others or just give up and speak only English and rely on everyone's good graces and their excellent English abilities.

One day we went down to San Sebastian (Donostia), Spain for the day (it is less than an hour from where we were). Our main goal was to eat tortilla de papa!! Here we are doing so--delicious!!!!



We also love San Sebastian because we went there a few years ago for another film festival that Chris was in and we have friends who have lived their before. I have to say that the whole Basque Coast is really one of my favorite places.

Here's our Basque Sailor...




Pablo and Atticus found a broken surf board on the sidewalk, and so it went everywhere with us that day.







Pablo is an artist who does really interesting mixed media pieces on surfing.



This is one of the pieces that I would like to buy. It has the freeway exists for good surf spots in Hawaii and Spain.

This is the gallery that represents Pablo in San Sebastian.



With all of the great art, the kids just couldn't help themselves but want to draw. The really nice gallery owner let them sit down in his office and draw as we ooo'ed and awed at the art in the gallery.




Here we are taking the elevator down to the basement of the gallery.



The whole place was beautifully designed!

After St. Jean de Luz, we took off for Biarritz to stay with the distributor of Chris' film a wonderful man named Frank. We had such a good time staying with him. His house is just like a page ripped right out of Dwell magazine.





The view is directly on to the beach. He is a surfer, of course, and can wake up and without getting out of bed check out the waves! His house is right next to a palace that Napolean built for one of his mistresses--now its the Hotel du Palais. Here is the Hotel du Palais in the far background...



Frank was so generous and let the kids play with all of his toys. They fell in love with pinball and loved his antique fuzzball table.



We also had a delicious meal that Frank made for us. Here we are at the market picking out dinner--amazing ravioli.



Just going to the market was amazing in and of itself...only regret is that we couldn't bring any of it home.





We loved the beach too...



















Here's Atticus checking out the waves...





By the time the waves were good it was freezing and raining, but Atticus was very brave and went for it!



Biarritz itself is a great town with lots of street performers...



Skateboarders/surfers...



Great hot chocolate...





Cool installation art...

(it's a telephone booth that's a fishtank).

Yet, despite everything, I still have my favorite activity...



All too soon, it was time to take the train back to Paris and fly home. We had a great train ride and met lots of friends!

Here's Baby Oscar...



Tiare and Atticus had French lessons--Tiare learned to count to 10 perfectly in French!

Here's Atticus and Alex...





Here is Tiare and Mamamo...



It was a fantastic trip filled with generous people who we were so lucky to meet and spend time with!!