Before I get to the juicy stuff (ie. coronavirus and confinement), I want to look back on a happier time while we were freely traveling France and there wasn’t a national quarantine set in place. But at least that quarantine has given me wifi and enough free time to actually sit down and write an article (even if it has taken me ages to get even part 1 out).
As we’ve already established, the French love their holidays. Which is why a month ago, Lauren (another English assistant in my académie) and I headed out on a southwestern tour of France!
We started our holiday in Lyon, as Lauren had never been before, and grabbed some lunch before wandering around town enjoying the beautiful day.
Our “adventure” began the next day. We made it to the bus station and boarded our bus to Clermont-Ferrand. The drive passed along pleasantly enough until our driver stopped about 20 minutes outside of the city and announced she was hungry, so we’d be stopping for a half hour to get some food, go to the bathroom, etc. Lauren and I decided we had better eat now instead of later, because it was likely restaurants would be closed in town because it was Sunday.
We took 12 minutes total.
When we came back outside to get on the bus, the bus was no where to be seen. We circled the whole rest stop and found no signs of our ride into town.
Well shoot.
After circling the rest stop one more time, we decided to sit and eat our lunch while we searched ways to get to Clermont-Ferrand and how to get our luggage, which naturally was on the bus. But we had our phones and wallets, so that was a start.
An elderly couple ended up sitting by us and Lauren started talking to them, eventually getting to the point that we were abandoned by our bus. We had already looked up the next bus (not for another six hours) and Uber (about 70 euros), so our next resort was convincing someone who was passing through the city to drop us off. We spent about another hour talking to different people and eventually, the elderly couple tracked down someone to take us.
Okay, step one — check.
We finally arrived in Clermont-Ferrand and Lauren then got on the phone with the bus company to track down our luggage. The agent told us it would be passing through Tours, where luckily another assistant friend was living! I quickly messaged him to see if he could pick up our stuff and he agreed!
Step two — check.
The next stages involved walking all the way across Clermont-Ferrand (our ride dropped us off right at the edge of town and it was Sunday, so many things were closed/not running). Once we checked in to our hotel for the night, we set out to find the one available grocery store that was open. With our luggage in Tours, we had very little in terms of necessities. We luckily found a store that had all our needs and then next step for the night was booking tickets to Tours for the next day.
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Day 2 in Clermont-Ferrand was also interesting because France also stays predominately shut down on Mondays as well as Sundays. But we found our coffee shop and then headed out to Parc de Montjuzet which gave us a gorgeous overlook of the city. We then wandered down the hill, stopping in what ever church or store was open to explore. The Cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand was especially fascinating as it was made from volcanic rock from the region!
Finally it was time to get on the train and head to Tours to pick up our stuff. Our fellow assistant, Ryan, greeted us at the train station where we headed out to grab dinner before turning in for the night.
– T O U R S –
Our time in Tours was short lived. We grabbed coffee at a local café and explored the city — or as much as we could while carrying around our luggage. But we wandered inside churches and found a singular château, so all in all, it was a successful day!
Lauren and I kept telling each other, “Our trip will truly begin once we’re in Bordeaux and everything would be alright.”
We didn’t realize how right we were until we arrived.
— B O R D E A U X —
We arrived to a sunny Bordeaux, which was short-lived as it rained the next few days we were there. All our baggage in hand and the cutest AirBnB, we immediately felt that our holiday was actually beginning.
Originally, we were supposed to meet Ryan in Bordeaux as our holidays overlapped, but it just so happened that he was in Tours to pick up our stuff and then our trains were only a few hours apart. He had heard of a gourmet food court that housed several “restaurants” with food from all over the world, so we met up there for dinner.
I felt like I was about to die happy when I saw there was a place with authentic tacos, which is saying a lot considering I’m not the most die-hard taco eater. But when I say that I’ve missed an actual taco, that itself doesn’t do it justice.
We settled on a party platter, with chips and guac, tacos, and a chicken quesadilla, alongside Mexican fruit sodas and ended up ordering an extra order of chips and guac because it was so good. After talking and people watching, we all agreed we were old people and turned in early. Which was a good thing because day 2 was jam packed.
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Day 2 in Bordeaux was potentially one of my favorite days ever, even if the weather was extremely bipolar, the three of us made the most of it.
We naturally started our day at an adorable brunch café called Books & Coffee. As we are all coffee fanatics, we drank buckets of lattes throughout our three days together.
Once brunch was over, we wandered over to the cathedral to escape the pouring rain.
Little did we know at the time, but it was Ash Wednesday!
This resulted in the entire cathedral being filled with music, which naturally is the only way to visit a cathedral.
We explored the cathedral and then continued on our way through town, dipping in and out of stores, churches, and cafés between the pockets of rainy and sunny weather. We drank more coffee, snacked on canelés, and imitated statues we saw along the way.
But then it got dark and cold, so the end of day 2 faded out and we entered… my birthday!
My birthday was one for the books — and I’m not just saying that because we started our day at Books & Coffee.
Yes, we loved that café so much that we went back again. C’est la vie.
After brunch, we decided to spend our rainy afternoon at the Musée d’Aquitaine. The museum covers the history of the region from the prehistoric era, all the way into the 1900s.
We quickly realized that we were too childish for a history museum. For some reason, every noise or comment made us erupt in laughter and we somehow managed to discuss “hitting the whoa”, crossbreeding, and Tinder within a thirty minute span.
I’m as confused as you are, truly.
After thoroughly exploring the museum, we headed out to the shops to kill a few hours before Ryan headed back to Tours and Lauren and I headed to dinner and wine tasting!
We then packed up for the next stop was the beach!
— B A Y O N N E —
We left early the next morning to arrive in the quaint town of Bayonne, which is just fifteen minutes away from the ocean.
After the chaos of Clermont-Ferrand and Tours and the busy-ness of Bordeaux, we decided our few days at the beach would be our chill days.
Bayonne was adorable and surprisingly sunny. We wandered inside cathedrals and found a tiny bookstore wedged in an alleyway. We stopped for coffee when we felt like it (not when our energy was waning and we felt like we were going to die) and explored a random university that was built on the hill — pretty sure it used to be a fortress and was later repurposed.
We then turned in for the night to make dinner and watch trash television, which is the only way to vacation.
— B I A R R I T Z —
After our AirBnB host told us that Biarritz was only a fifteen minute bus ride away (a city that’s actually on the coast), we decided to spend our Saturday there as we had fully explored Bayonne.
We weren’t planning on the weather.
We left the apartment when it was still clear — a bit windy with scattered clouds, but manageable.
By the time the bus dropped us off, the wind was blowing at full force and it had started raining.
Honestly, I felt as if I was back on the Oregon coast.
The second we spotted the ocean, Lauren (who is from Louisiana) and I both squealed. While we enjoy our mountain lives, both of us had missed going to the beach.
We hit the beach, pulling off shoes and socks, and ran straight into the water.
It should go without saying that the western coast of France in February would be freezing.
But we didn’t care! Both of our pants got entirely soaked from the waves and our feet were getting cut up from the small rocks that the high tide was washing up, but we spent a good hour or so wandering up and down the coastline.
When our feet finally couldn’t take it, we headed into town.
Biarritz was interesting during the off-season as many restaurants and stores were closed until May.
Which was unfortunate as the weather took an especially sour turn and continued to pour. While I had a rain jacket, Lauren had been dealing with the wind and rain with an umbrella and denim jacket. We kept seeing those classic waxy rain coats, but could only find them in shops for over 100€. After turning down a random street, we found a tiny store that was open with the rain jackets for only 50€! We were both amazed and Lauren didn’t even think it over — she bought it and wore it for the rest of the trip.
Naturally, we hunted down the one cathedral we could find (apparently there was a Russian orthodox church, but it was closed during the off-season) and eventually stumbled upon a viewpoint near the aquarium!
The viewpoint was gorgeous and allowed us to look up and down the coastline and get some priceless windblown pictures.
Eventually, we decided we were too cold to spend any more time out in the rain, so we picked up some food at the supermarché and headed home to cook some dinner and watch TV.
For now, I leave you with part one of our holidays as this post is already too long and way overdue. I hope to update the next part in the next few days, Lord willing.
Anyway, stay safe and healthy and send me Netflix recommendations.
Until I force myself to write the next post,
— Kate
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