Euro final in the basque

Well the trip turned out to be too perfect- we left paris friday nite and arrived in Biarritz Sat morning, the trip was an overniter and they accomidate well, they have the bar train turned into an all nite disco with a real dj. It was interesting but we wanted to make sure we were well rested so after a drink we went back to our cab and went to sleep. We woke up in Biarritz which is a surfer town but still a real town, not a stoner hippie commune, and a 1000 times cooler than any hippie or tourist town like the Jamaican beaches i went to last year. No poseurs here, even the surfers didnt have any kind of wannabee vibes like in socal. It was just absolutely laid back as anything can be outside of pawley's. The hotel was a steal and set us up right when we got there which was about 7 in the morning. All saturday we explored, went to the aquarium and sat out by the beach. For lunch we went to this section by the fishing ports where there are 3 restaurants which all serve the freshest seafood. I got the "fruits of the sea" which is a big iced platter of shellfish that would cost $70 in paris. The lil clams were great but not as good as the big clam. The snails were scary at first because they were cold and maybe still alive but they tasted great. The oysters were the same I get at my fish market- an immediate hit of metal that overwhelms but then the saltiness and fruitiness takes over. The crab was good, and the prawns not-they were served with the head on how i like, but the meat was insipid. Later that nite we went to a kebob place that hooked me up with a good skewer of duck: breast, heart, and gizzards. The gizzards were good, the breast and the heart were much better.
On Sunday we visited Bayonne which was very quiet, but it was Sunday. We ate on the river and i got a huge pot of Basquian style of mussels with squid and spices. It was really good, and after 40 minutes i looked down at the empty pot and there were still about 20 mussels left and i realized i ate close to 300 and i could have eaten 200 more(which really isnt that much for mussel eaters). If me or a guy like my bro or landy had to survive on eating mussels and we had allyoucaneatbuffet we would probably spend all day eating and still waste away.
Speaking of me and my bro, the frenchies in the country stink. I mean some of them stink so bad you can combine the stench of me, my bro, mike seese, and holler after 3 bball games and a graduation weekend shift- times that by 10 and then maybe you'll get the idea.
Anyway, then we went back to the beach at Biarritz and then we went to a pub to watch Spain v. Germany. We watched the 1st half there and then safe(!?) ell wanted to make sure we got back near the train station to watch the 2nd half. All the bars near the station were closed since it was Sunday. It was a bad call. CC went into the station and i wandered out to find a place i could watch the game. Total ghost town. The streets were absolutely desolate since everyone was watching the game. There was no one even to ask where a bar was except for some very mean Rotts that scared the piss out of me at every few 100 yards. Finally i found this dark driveway that led into some kind of compound and once i was in the middle of it i found a lobby and watched the last 10 mins of Spain's victory with these weird religious families. There was about 30 of us in a really pretty dark oak bar watching it on a 15 yo TV without cable. I truly wish i had my camera but i left it in my bag. Then i got lost on the way back to the station, but finally made it back to a very unhappy CC.
Today i thought it was the July 1 so i went down to this Richard Avedon expo that i wanted to be the first to visit. I was wrong, so i went to this Japanese noodle soup place that is so recommended and there is a line out the door. It sucked. If you want asian soup then get pho and if you want dumplings get dimsum. Vietnamese do the soups and the chinois do the dumplings and the japanese give you rubbery gyoza and glorified oodles of noodles. Plus it wasnt that cheap. $15! In Chapel Hill you can feed 5 lowly Americans for that.
Then since 90% of the museums were closed and wimbledon was supposed to be a big day I went over to the roland garros area to see if i could find a cool tennis bar. Well there wasnt so i walked over to rg and there was some old dudes tourney going on the smaller courts. So i went in and checked out the stomping grounds and as i was walking up the stairs to Suzanne Lenglen i realized there was some really big dude out there hammering the ball. It was Monfils! Just playin with this dude. I must have got there at the beginning because a few minutes later there were a bunch of people crowding around. I think i got some good pics. He withdrew from Wimbledon cuz of an arm injury so i guess he was rehabbing. He held his arm a few times, but he played thru it. When he served he absolutely annihilated the ball. The guy might be a total one hit wonder but it was still a kinda cool parisian moment.