Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Visitez la Côte Basque - Good Idea?

Howdy surf brethren and sistren,

Mid-September I'll be taking 2 weeks off, and I'd like to go someplace epic to surf. I turned 50 recently, so time to stop dreamin' and time to start doin'.

I'll be travelling solo (pathetic... I know), but at this rate hell will freeze over before I meet "the one" to take a cool trip with. So screw it, I want to go someplace, I've worked hard and earned it. I don't care about how much of an a-hole I look like by myself, life is too short.

Basque country has always intrigued me. No, I'm not harboring any dreams of hooking into Hossegor bombs, or getting shacked at Guéthary, or hanging with the beautiful people in Biarritz, but it would be cool to score some fun waves after the August euro-hordes have thinned out some. I'd rent a car and explore around a bit, do the Hemingway thing like in The Sun Also Rises.

I lived in France from '85 to '87 teaching high school English in Paris, and can still speak French reasonably well (no Spanish, sadly). This was long before I surfed, so I never made it down to the Côte Basque.

There are some other areas of France's Atlantic coast which look cool too, around La Rochelle and Brittany. Brittany is a spectacular area but a bit remote.

So has anyone been there? Any recommendations for me (besides playing in the traffic)?

Thanks