Biarritz: Le Grand Tour

Le Grand Tour: big breakfast with toast, yogurt, muesli, fruit, apple juice (from their own apple tree). Into the car for a drive to Espellet, then St.Jean de Luz, to view the very old church where their daughter married, and where Louis XV married Infanta Marie-Therèse of Austria; and the residences built for them in the 1600s. Drive north toward Biarritz and Anglet (pronouced ahnglet), where Dominique spent some

early years.

Lunch in Bidart, at Restaurant Tantina de la Playa, a surfside seafood place, very popular, with a snack bar on the side. We had a difficult time finding a parking place, as the cliffside road was barricaded, so we drove around to another parking area then walked down the cliffside to the beach. No signs, so we assumed the snack bar was the place, but telling the waiter that we had a reservation made him point to the nearby tablecloth restaurant! Maxime ordered chipirons grillé (typical Basque grilled squid) and poivrons farci (stuffed peppers with cod); then Maxime&Dominique shared a large merlue grilled; I had the Ttorro (basque name for a bouillabaise-like stew, mostly mussels and cabillaud; Barb had the grilled salmon. And a bottle of white wine, of

course, which ended up just between Barb and me! Stuffed and well-oiled, we hiked back up the hundred steps, and drove on through Dominique's old stomping grounds of Biarritz and Anglet, driving past the house of Putin's ex-wife, the house of Putin's reputed daughter (recently invaded and filmed by YouTubers), and a Californian surfing mogul.

We walked along the beach, then drove back home, for another huge gourmet meal: Steamed leeks (very traditional entrée) then duck confit, which Maxime had evidently first prepped last winter, storing it in its own fat graisse.

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