We woke up to a yucky wet day with a howling wind. Minh-Yen was sleeping up top which only has canvas sides and made the howling wind really loud. I kept waking up from down below and I can only imagine how it would have woken her up! The whole van was rocking all night long and none of us woke up feeling particularly well rested. We got off to a slower start and packed up the van to change campsites. We eventually headed off and arrived in the small town of Urrugne in France, just on the other side of the border and near St. Jean de Luz. We found a spot near the washrooms since it was wet out and relaxed until we could check in at 2. We headed in to the reception to order bread for the next day and the owner told us that the pool was running and heated if we wanted to go later. We pondered the idea, but eventually decided that it was already wet enough out and we didn't really have anywhere to hang swimsuits to dry. We went out for a quick walk while there was a break in the rain and just as we turned around, it started to POUR!!! We got back to the van just soaked and decided that the best thing to do would be to change into dry clothes, turn on the heat and play some more Settlers of Catan.

We woke up the next morning to a decent day and set off for Biarritz. We found parking on the street since all of the parkades had too low of roof clearance for us.   We wandered along the seawall and up a small hill to a great view of the beach on either side. We passed by the harbour which looked like quite the maze to get into with its several walls and openings in them. We arrived at the rock formations off the coast and had some great views of the waves crashing against them. There were some huge swells which just pounded into the rocks and sent up huge sprays!There was a really neat rock with a huge opening that they had added benches around so you could enjoy the view. We also could climb on top of it and found more benches up top. We walked out on the bridge to the offshore rock with the statue of Mary on top. The tidepools looked like they would have been fun to explore if we had had a good pair of gumboots! As we continued around the corner, we noticed a blue swim cap in the water. Sure enough, someone was swimming in the bay! We looked at ourselves with toques and gloves on and decided that either they were crazy to be swimming in that cold of weather, or we were just being too wimpy. As we continued along, we noticed that lady getting out of the water (after she had had a nice long dip) and another headed down the beach for her swim! Brrr! We continued on and browsed a few of the shops that were open; most were closed for a winter break. We didn’t find any menus tempting us for lunch, but there was a crêpe place that had looked tasty. We headed back and decided to have lunch there. There was just one lady working and we hoped she had more help in the summer! We could watch her making the crêpes over the counter. Minh-Yen and I opted for the ham, cheese & egg crêpe while Anoop went for the bacon, cheese & egg crêpe. They were delicious!We felt we needed a dessert crêpe and all went for the salted caramel butter crêpe which was to die for. It had started to rain while we were eating so we were glad to be inside warming up for a while. We then continued on our walk around town, passing by all sorts of neat buildings. We wandered past a fancy gated hotel which had a €130 menu posted outside – needless to say we wouldn’t be trying out that one! Afterwards we set off to nearby Bayonne which had a chocolate museum & factory that we were looking forward to checking out – the perfect thing to do in the rain. Unfortunately, once we got there, they said they were closed for renovations for 3 weeks! Sigh, no chocolate for us! Instead we headed back to camp, opened up our box of Swiss hot chocolate powder & a bar of chocolate and, you guessed it, played some more Settlers!