07 – Guethary
Day 7 – May 6, 2009
(above) After I sent out the last trip report, we had dinner, at home, prepared by Amondine and Jean-marc……Food and it’s enjoyment is so much of the way of life here, that to not record it would be to overlook a huge part of the overall French experience…
(above) For dessert, hot French toast, unlike anything I have ever had...So good….
(above)
(above) Go ahead and ask the cat, he saw what went down…
(above) Wednesday morning…Heading west…
(above) The road to the beach…
(above) The beach …A river meanders through here…
(above) Not much wind this morning…
(above) Beyond the beach the swell was doing its thing on the sandbanks…
(above) So we decided to go out and get a few waves before Jean-marc had to be at work…Here my board is five minutes away from being ready to ride…
(above) It felt great to get wet, paddle pretty hard, get a few waves and put another pin on the mental “I surfed here map”…here we are, on our way home, with Jack Johnson on the radio, and a chocolate croissant from Spain yesterday in my belly…Life is good…
(above) Ann and I had some time to do laundry while jean-marc was at his meeting…Drying things the old fashioned way…As if clothes grew on trees…
(above) J-m brought us back to Guilhem’s where we will stay for the rest of the week…After dropping off our stuff we went for lunch…This place, closed today, is where we sat and had our adult beverages yesterday…Today we eat in the place across the street that was in yesterdays picture…Confusing…???...Oui…
(above) Below the restaurant is the rail line that runs coastal…Passenger and freight both run these lines…
(above) After lunch I did a short walk to see the surf a little better…
(above) Another incredible, warm day…
(above) Controversial even after he is gone…
(above) The main focal point of surfing in Guethary…
(above) Compared often to
(above) This afternoon it was time set aside to go here and help Monsieur Rainfray (AKA: Balsa) cut and plane some balsa for the workshop, which will be starting on Friday…
(above) Guilhem, wearing a tee shirt from a very inclusive surf club…Good vibes, spread it like you get it…
(above) In the hands of the master…
(above) We worked for several hours cutting what we needed, then called it a day…
(above) Guilhem suggested we go out for dinner…There was good news and bad news…The bad news was the restaurant he wanted to go to was closed today…The good news was we would go back to where we had lunch…Some champagne before sunset…
(above) The restaurant has a view overlooking the surf…
(above) Guilhem explains the menu items…
(above) And the daily specials were presented…I went with the Porcelet a la Plancha…
(above) Au revoir soleil …
(above) Bonjour vin…This one had Guilhem almost drooling when he saw it on the wine list…
(above) Bonjour Pourchet…We had a great conversation over dinner…We talked about family, food, wine, surfing, surfboards, surfers, travel similarities and differences, and a lot about the best era of music…The late 60’s early 70’s…Guilhelm in a lot of ways is a long lost soul brother…After dinner Ann and I went to the house we are staying…The house where Guilhem’s was raised…One of the oldest houses in Guethary…Another fine day was done…
More later …
Paul