Basque Country
Architecture, the sea, history, culture and good food makes for my favorite holidays. The Pyrenees as a backdrop adds to the wonderful aesthetic. Just 20 or 30 minutes between the glitz of Biarritz and the city prominence of San Sebastian, this area could be considered a working fishing village, with the friendliness of Dallas neighborhoods that I enjoy. While I don’t spend time on boats, I love watching from my balcony fishing boats coming in and out of the sea. It is fun to know the chef/owner of Le Kaiku, a one-star Michelin restaurant that I go to every evening, is procuring some of the daily catch for every dinner. By scrolling you will see a couple of photographs of the 600-year-old stone building the restaurant occupies. It has been serving food here from the beginning, but the dinners have improved from the early prison food served during the building’s original use, not far from the seawall. From a similar aged original Basque home, I can see from my balcony the sea just 100 feet away, and survey the condition of the water before the sun comes up for my long morning swim in the Bay of Biscay. While I occasionally see Jean Paul Gaultier walking on the seawall and friends from France, the only other familiar faces are those that every year sweetly provide for all my needs at the bike shop, market, restaurant, wine shop and other shops.
Here is a civilized place without pretension where I can enjoy swimming, biking, reading on the beach, good food and visiting historical places and cultural sites without it feeling like a forced march. I always find it interesting how many different approaches people take when they are traveling. Basque Country, for me, has a nice cadence and rhythm. *Basque Country
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