A weekend escape to Biarritz: Part II

Hope you’re having a good weekend! As I said in the first part of my articles featuring my Biarritz trip last week (here), I got quite snap happy and took a little too many photos, so I decided to create a two-part blog post. And here it is!

On the second day of our stay we visited the market in the morning - the town’s main fresh market, which is an indoor space split into two sections - the first for everything from fruit and veg, bread, meat and cheese, to speciality products and the second is dedicated to fish and seafood. As I’ve written about in my book, PRACTISING PARISIENNE due out in the UK in September, one of my favourite places to explore in Paris are the markets and that extends to the rest of France. Whenever I’m in another French city, town or village, I make a beeline for the market and always check when they’re happening (if they pop-up only a couple of times a week), to make sure my stay coincides with them.

The market in Biarritz is open until 2pm on the weekend, so following breakfast at Hotel du Palais, we walked into town so I could explore the aisles and stalls. I’ve been here once before around five years ago and loved it just as much. With limited luggage and no way to keep things cool, we ended up just purchasing handmade sandwiches and a few sweet treats for our train ride home back to Paris, such as strawberries, cannelés (the small fluted rum-flavoured cakes that hail from Bordeaux) and another small cake native to Biarritz. Although next time I’m in town, I will probably bring a cool pack so I can buy some cheeses, charcuterie and other items local to Biarritz.

Once we had taken in the sights and smells of the market stalls, we dined at Chistera et Coquillages - another seafood restaurant in the row of restaurants flanking the market that was just as delicious as Bar Jean and serving up a similar menu.

After lunch we made our way back to the hotel to spend the afternoon by the salt water heated pool, listen to the waves on the beach below and enjoy the last few hours of our time in this beautiful seaside town! I hope you’ve enjoyed my photos.