π Cannot determine address at this location.by Ekaterina
As the weather during our Spanish trip was not going to get better, we had to find a place nearby that was at least "not very nasty." This was a place that we were interested about for a while, French Biarritz located on the border between the Basque lands and Gascony. All that I heard about it before - was that it was a French seaside resort on the Atlantic coast, popular for surfing due to the presence of "the right waves". Since we arrived during low season, it was only possible to estimate its tourist potential. The city is really nice. Perhaps, it was due to the fact that it is located in France, where the atmosphere of enjoying life is in almost every region (in a good way, that is :)
Actually, being in a resort city during "off-season" causes a feeling that you sneaked into someone's house, while the owner is away, to see how people live there. And all this time I had a "holiday eve" kind of feeling when you understand, that now it is good, but in a season it will be even better. Many places in Biarritz were closed during this period, and the others only had local residents and a few visiting tourists like us. And the attitude to such visitors was very different - there was some kind of homely cosiness. I loved spending time in the half-empty city, having a feeling that all of it was just for me. We even didn't need to make the hotels price comparison - this time the prices were very low themselves.
Next, we headed to Bordeaux. This city is located in the famous wine region of France, on the banks of the Garonne river, separating it into a historic and a more modern part. We, of course, were interested in the perfectly preserved historical part. Most of it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a unique urban and architectural ensemble of the Enlightenment. There were much more tourists there than in the previous regions that we visited during this trip. As Bordeaux is a major industrial city and all its infrastructure is developed for year-round use, and there is no feeling of seasonality, all cafes, restaurants and bars were open and packed with visitors, there were open-air markets and street concerts happening as well. The city has a huge number of museums, it makes no sense to list them, and in addition to the classic museums, you can find a submarine museum, or, more interestingly, wine museum (there has to be one in this region!). The city left a most pleasant experience, we will be glad to visit it again.
