Nothing Toulouse except a night in Montpellier

Wednesday August 8 I woke up pleasantly surprised to see that Ryan was still breathing despite his foie gras intake the day before. We packed up our things and waved a fond farewell to Bordeaux, and hit the road for Toulouse. We wanted to break up the drive to the French Riviera so planned for 1 night in Toulouse and 1 night in Montpellier. All the hotels I've booked so far have turned out to be pretty good, but the day before we left for Toulouse I looked up the hotel address and realised I'd royally fudged it up (it was a chain, and I obviously booked the wrong one), and so we were staying out near an airport and space museum. D'oh!

Out in the sticks in Toulouse

No worries, we got to the main part of Toulouse early afternoon and had some lunch. For some reason Ryan chose Vietnamese (despite his mate telling him don't bother unless you're in Paris). Anyway, Ryan had the most disappointing pho in his life, and I had a pretty ordinary beef salad, but it was nice to have some greens! We wandered around Toulouse a bit, but from where we parked the car we couldn't really find the old town and it was getting pretty hot, so we both agreed that Toulouse was a bit of a travel fail and we'd just bunker down for a quiet evening in our hotel out in the sticks (which actually was very comfortable - recently renovated with the best bed and shower I think we've had!). Anyway, we got to catch up on emails and blogging and watch some Olympics. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant as well - I'm not sure why so many people were there - it must be a good stop-off point for business people or something. Anyway, I had the buffet (purely because I could see vegetables) and Ryan had another disappointing chicken dish. Lucky we could wash it all down with some of our favourite rose from Provence. Funny night.

The city walls of Carcassonne

The next morning we woke fairly early and well rested! I even got up and went for a brisk walk/jog which I have started to do every few days to try and slow down the inevitable weight gain! We checked out and drove to Carcassonne, a billion year old fortified city (built by the Romans) perched up on a hill. We had an early lunch of crepes at a place we'd read good reviews on, and they were great! A potent crepe suzette for Ryan and a tomato/cheese/mushroom one for me. Then we walked up to the striking looking 'la Cite' inside the city walls. It was crawling with tourists and was really starting to heat up, so we got some gelatis to keep cool! The town looked amazing (although too crowded), and had some great vistas out over the rest of the (newer) town. So we wandered around and battled the crowds for a little while before heading back to make our way to Montpellier.

Panoramic view from the old city of Carcassonne

So after about an hour on the road, we had reached the exit for Montpellier and lined up to pay our toll (12 or so Euros for that hour!) and it must have only been a few minutes before we got there, but when we passed through the toll gates there were cars everywhere at a complete standstill. It turned out that just up ahead a tanker, somehow, had turned on its side. (The only other accident we have seen on this trip was on the way to San Sebastian when we saw a car on its roof in a tunnel, so when they have accidents they seem to do it in spectacular fashion).

Traffic at a stand still

We were there before all the emergency crews arrived, who had to squeeze through the maze of impatient vehicles. We waited about an hour in that spot, and as it seemed as though no one was going anywhere, people started turning round and going back down the freeway (having to take another ticket, just for extra insult). I could see on google maps a couple of other alternative routes to Montpellier (completely back tracking of course) but everyone else had the same idea, not to mention that all vehicles behind us were now being shuttled down this way as well, so more traffic. Anyway, we eventually got there, but a 1 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive which was pretty frustrating. We arrived at around 7pm, and fortunately, our hotel was very conveniently located this time! Hooray!

La Place de la Comedie in Montpellier (right near our hotel!)

Montpellier looked great - big squares and beautiful buildings. We stopped for a wine to ease the nerves of the traffic and manic driving on the way in before heading to a restaurant I'd booked called Playfood. It had great reviews on trip advisor, and was basically a place where there are little cups ('verrines') of all different foods and are 2 euro each. We were the first ones there and the guy who runs the whole show there and came up with the idea was very nice and friendly and explained how it all worked. When we said we were Australian he said he lived in Newtown for a little while! Small world! It turned out he worked for 6 months at Soni's, one of our favourite tapas bars that is no longer there. It was there that he came up with some of his ideas!

A photo of me (due to popular demand) enjoying some verrines

So we had a pretty large assortment of verrines - there were things like beetroot and goats cheese and "french toast" (but with banana and blue cheese - was yum!). It was great to be able to try lots of different flavours. And then there were a bunch of dessert verrines, like tiramisu (but without the coffee), caramel pannacotta and melon with vanilla bean. It was all great! Towards the end a bunch of cool looking hipster types set up nearby and started playing their tubas and euphoniums and trombones (which was red!) to Amy Winehouse's Rehab. They were awesome too.

Dessert verrines

Then we spent the rest of the night walking around the little old town, which looked really great, and stopped in at a couple of bars and watched the Olympics. We really loved what we saw of Montpellier and were sad we didn't have more time there, but have just put it on the growing list of places we have to come back to!

So many reds so little time

The drive from Biarritz to Bordeaux was kind of cold so we actually had to get the jackets out of the car when we landed in Bordeaux. I really didn't mind about the change of weather as drinking vin rouge in 30 degree weather is not fun anyway.

We walked into the old town and I scoured the bistrodes because I wanted to see what a french onion soup actually was after eating about a million cans of it as a kid. Success, we found a bistrode with it! When it came out it looked like a normal soup except there was a floating island of molton cheese on bread, I guess this is the French version of a crouton.

We then went for a walk to the old docks which have been converted to a bar/cafe area. This looks out to the mighty Garrone river. When we were there I started to get a bit home sick for Brisbane as the river is a similar colour.

The mighty Garrone with its unfinished bridge

Bordeaux is known as "little Paris" because of the architecture

The next day we looked up where we could do some wine tasting. The place called Max Bordeaux seemed to come up quite a few times so we headed there. This was really great as they had a setup where you get an electronic card where you top up with Euros and then go around to each wine, press a button and have a 25/50/75 mL tasting. Also they had tasting notes beside each cabinet on ipads so you knew what not to try ie. 70% merlot blends.

Yay no talking to people to get my drink on

So we got to try a lot of wines that we couldn't normally afford. I think the most expensive one we tried was 600 Euros a bottle. That wasn't my favourite though. My favourite Bordeaux wine was only around 235 Euros a bottle. Pretty reasonable really. Also we tried some really nice Bordeaux whites which were all sem/savs, they were really full on with heaps of fruit and acid.

We wandered around a bit in the old town then noticed an English bar with a sign saying happy hour from 6-10pm so we went there to watch the olympics. After that we went to a Chinese restaurant because we were desperate for some green vegetables. We got a plate of fried rice, garlic broccolli and some ginger chicken and  a bottle of Provence rose. Although I knew it would have been bad compared to back home it was one of the best goddam meals of the trip. It was at this point I realised that so far the things I miss about Australia are friends, family and decent Asian food. That's about it.

Like the brissy river the Garrone is best photographed at night

The next day the sun was back out and it was looking like a European summer again so we thought it was the perfect day for a picnic. We went to the markets and picked up some local cheese and olives, then went to another store which sold cold Ruinart champagne and foie gras de canard. We then went and cained these delicious goods in the park which had massive wine bottles everywhere. I wasn't sure if you were allowed to cain champagne in Bordeaux but we didn't get arrested so it was ok I think.

"I want to be on you"

Mmm cheese and fois

After this we went to a wine tasting place that is run by the local Bordeaux council. (Please take note City of Sydney council). I use the word tasting loosely as they were actually just massive glasses of wine and I only got through a couple. I think this would be the best government job possible as when I was wondering where the waitress had gotten to her I spied her helping herself to some of the local produce. I guess doing quality assurance to make sure it was OK for the tourists to have.

Heidi with a Bordeaux white at the council wine bar

Really wanting to sample more quality wine for dinner we researched some more back at home where to go to and settled on Le Wine Bar. This place is run by 2 multi lingual Italians who are hilarious. When Heidi ordered a gwerstraminer one of the guys gave her the hot tip of pronouncing things in German, "you need to say it like a dobermen would, GVERST TRAGHMINNEAAR!"

They also had a assiete of meat which we ordered. It came out and with a ridiculous amount of fois gras which Heidi didn't help me out with. So I think my fois count for the day was around 300 grams. As well as some awesome Bordeaux reds (which I found de graves style seems to be my cup of tea), I had an Israeli Syrah which rocked.

We also met James who we invited to our table after hearing his Aussie accent, he was from Newtown but now lives in Melbourne. He was over playing in London for The Black Armbands then doing some travelling around by himself.

Biarriches

Saturday morning we woke up feeling forlorn because we had to leave Espana against our will, but chins up we set off for some breakfast along the beach on the way to collecting our car parked up on the hill. It was a nice sunny morning and the water view was lovely while sipping our espressos and noisettes, which didn't make the thought of leaving Espana any easier. Luckily the wait for 20 or so minutes after asking for the bill and never getting it, did. We just left a 10er on the table (maybe that's how they ensure a tip?!).

Biarritz

Because we'd waited so long for the honey badger to (never) bring us la cuenta, we only just made it back to the hotel in time to collect our bags for 11am check-out. It was quietly satisfying hearing the massive church next to us chime 11am as we wheeled our bags out into reception. Lucky I was babbling onto the lady about how I wanted to move to San Sebastian coz it turned out Ryan left his glasses in the room. Nice one Ryan.

Biarritz again

Our next stay was in Biarritz, on the western French coast less than an hour away, so we made a couple of stops along the way, the first being Hondarribia right on the French border. We'd heard this place had THE best pinxtos in Spain (which following la fuego negro is hard to imagine) so although it was barely midday and we hadn't done our research we thought we'd stop by. A cute little port town with German looking architecture we walked around but it was all a bit sleepy. I suspect the best pinxtos bars open later but we found one and had tried a few - nothing spectacular but we weren't surprised, and I wasn't too disappointed as I'm sure I will be back again in the coming years, and I'll make sure we're fully prepared!

More Biarritz (just a few steps down from our hotel)

So we left Hondarribia and crossed the border back into France, where there immediately seemed to be more trees. About a 15 minute drive and we reached Saint Jean de Luz, situated on the Bay of Biscay so sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean. It is also part of Basque country so didn't feel like we'd left Spain too far behind (which I guess we really hadn't). Although overcast, it was a Saturday and it was August so the place was pretty crowded. We managed to find a parking spot though somehow, then walked down to the water. It  was quite pretty although I think it would be nicer on a sunny day. So trying to forget all the Hola's and Si's and Gracia's from the last few weeks, we stopped in at a bar to try and get a coffee and/or drink and appreciate the view, but after waiting for the French honey badger to take our order and hearing we didn't want to "manger", we got the "Je suis desolee" and something about you having to eat up until 3pm. Lady! I have just spent 3 weeks eating my way around Spain. Do I look like I need to eat?! Anyway, I didn't post-Hondaribbia pinxtos, so we left.

Ryan on our little hotel balcony

We walked around the little town a bit, which looked quite cute, but then we just decided to head straight to Biarritz. About another 15 minutes or so and we were already there, in this "luxurious seaside town" also in Basque country. The sun had come out a bit when we arrived, and so the beach was packed (which had quite a decent swell) when we drove along it to find our hotel. Ryan was pretty excited about coming here since he saw it on Endless Summer, so was hoping to rent a surfboard and catch some waves.

We parked the car in a parking station and walked to our hotel, which was right down near the water and on a little pedestrians-only street full of shops, cafes and restaurants which looked pretty cool. We checked in, and it was a pretty nice spacious room with a little balcony were you could see some of the water. We then took a long walk (the "coastal walk") along the length of the coastline, to a few different beaches around different cliffs and lookout points. There were heaps of surfers enjoying the 5-6 foot swell, and lots of swimmers too, although I can imagine the water would have been a bit chilly!

Surf's up

The views were pretty spectacular and the walk along the coast and promenade, with the big casino and heaps of tourists (I think mainly pretty well-off French tourists?) eating ice creams, was nice. As it got later the tide began to come in, and it was funny watching the waves suddenly come another few metres up the beach within seconds and all the sunbathers scrambling to pick up their towels and stuff. They had built walls along certain sections, and it was quite spectacular to see the waves (which were getting bigger) crash on to the walls with spray shooting high into the air. Not somewhere I would want to be in a big storm!

We chilled in the hotel for a bit and looked up some good seafood places for dinner, and found Le Galion which had some good reviews. So we set back out to the restaurant, and after searching for an ATM for literally half an hour (we even tried the casino - where the people get their money from in such an affluent looking town I do no know), we got a table at Le Galion. It was a pretty nice looking place with water (and casino) views but the menu was pretty reasonable, and so we both got the 3 course summer menu for 19 Euros which was pretty good value! It even came with an amuse bouche (gazpacho). So I had some fish carpaccio and salmon tartare and fruit skewers which was all pretty nice. Ryan had some salad thing and grilled fish of the day (which had vegetables much to his delight) and some delicious chocolate dessert. Pretty good! After that we just headed home for a pretty early night, despite the streets around our hotel being packed with people who from the sounds of it partied into the wee hours.

Panoramic of Biarritz

The next morning the skies were again grey and it was pretty chilly, so Ryan decided not to go surfing after all. In fact we just checked out of the hotel and found a cafe for our morning coffees, and it was so chilly sitting there (must have been 15 degrees or something) that after waiting for Ryan's average croque monsieur to arrive (which was never clear whether it had actually been ordered or not) we just decided to get in the car and head straight to our next destination, Bordeaux. The rain soon started and the 2 hour drive to Bordeaux was mainly in the rain, some of it torrential, but it eased off just as we arrived in Bordeaux, although still a pretty chilly 17 degrees or so, much to my  dismay as this meant I would have to try and fit into my jeans. Oh dear.

By the beard of Zeus

There was a long drive from Madrid to San Sebastian so we had to break it up with a stop in Burgos where we had some 1 euro boccidillos for lunch. I would tell Spain to please increase your prices to 2 euro for a meal and get out of debt, but this would probably incite riots as it impacts their way of life.

We made our way into San Sebastian and either google or Heidi gave some bad directions (lets say google did for the sake of the marriage) and we ended up being stopped by some polisia local. I thought "Oh noes another Spanish Inquisition", but they just informed us that we can't drive down the "zona peatonal". No fine because they weren't arsehole Australian police.

After checking in we were told that the only free parking was miles away on a hill in a residential area. We went and parked the car on the ridiculous hill amongst the ridiculously grandiose houses and apartments, then walked down along the beach promenade and had a gin and tonic(I'm a fan of these since Barcelona, its like a martini, but for daytime).

View from the carpark(this place should be good).

For dinner, we went out to the Parte Vieja (Old Town) and the place was buzzing already a bit after 7pm which is quite early for Spain to be buzzing. After walking around a few places and having some room temperature seafood pinxtos next to areas of the bar where you either get constantly bumped into or standing where they were bussing finished plates and glasses, I was kind of over it and wondering what the big deal was about San Sebastian.

One of the streets of the old town

I mean we had already had pinxtos for lunch with Dan Smith in Barcelona and that was awesome. It was fresh, not busy and you could enjoy them without someone pushing a plate of half finished pinxtos past you to the bar. Anyway we retired to a another quiet bar where there were for some reason a lot of Aussies. I guess sometimes you just want to watch the Olympics and have a quiet pint.

Thursday, we did a walk up the hills on the opposite end of town, past the Parte Vieja, to go up the winding roads to the statue of Christ. There's a few old battlements and a castle. I didn't get all the translations but Napoleon was mentioned and I think this was a key vantage point to hold back in the old days. 

Once we got up to the castle, just under the feet of the statue of Christ, there was some more breathtaking views to be seen incase your breath wasn't already taken from the hike up. There were a lot of Spanish people saying "hey Zeus" when we got up there, but I think they're all pretty bad at theology as the statue at the top was Christ, not Zeus...idiots.

What up Zeus?

Us ruining the view.

Later we took a walk to the other beach across the bridge "Playa de Zurriola", which the weather had taken a turn, it was really blowy, but walking across that bridge was amazing. The river was really tidal and you could see fish battling the currents on the changing tide in the clear water.

We went back home to research where we could get some decent food. My mate Ev had whatsapped me and said I must "find a tapas place at back end of old town, has sign Keller 18 out front, and jamon wrapped scallops the size of rib fillets" (Keller 18 is like on every sign because its the local beer) and that at "top end there's a red and black lighting modern tapas at the other end of old town shops and maccas". With these directions how could I go wrong. Anyways we came across this website www.todopintxos.com and drew all the bars we could into our tourist map and set out. 

N.B. Heidi's phone cannot eject SIM after she tried to get it out with a toothpick and my phone battery died in Barcelona so we've been living like savages when we're out and about, hence the tourist maps.

Who needs technology when you're a savage?

We nearly made it to 31 de Agosto, when I noticed that there was an ambient bar with red lighting which I thought Heidi would be interested in as you could barely see anything in there. Heidi describes this kind of thing as "ambiance". I said to the waiter in there "mesa por dos" and he answered back in English "sit where ever you want" because my Spanish is so terrible. We grabbed a spot at the bar and ordered from an English menu which was kind of comforting as it was "Nuevos Tapas" which basically meant new tapas or "not the same shit you've been eating all across this country for the past 3 weeks in every bar". Anyway I digress.

The menu in Basque lit in red and black I think this is where the name comes from.

The place was called "a Fuego Negro". This menu was awesome, all cooked to order. I  also spied a copy of "the bible" in a display case which meant this food was going to be top notch. There was cool hip hop playing too. We ordered rabbit with garlic, fried octopus and olive salad, olives with vermouth and ceviche with pomegranate foam. So good.

Ceviche with pomegranate foam

Olives with vermouth gel

Roast garlic bunny, the playboy thing was parmesan

Then we went up to La Cuchara de San Telmo, which was first on the list from todopinxtos. The menus again were Ingles thank god. (I have noticed that it's a lot easier to read French menus than Spanish despite coming over with no French. I think it's due to the French impact on cuisine. Goddam even cuisine sounds French.) Anyway, this place gets the worst vegetarian restaurant award. We had jamon wrapped maine scallops which are the size of rib medallions, ah this must be the other place Ev was on about. Also suckling pig, diced cuttlefish with venison snout(was yummy, connective tissue from land and sea together at last!) and slow cooked veal cheeks. Aw yeah. Also the jamon wrapped scallops took a while to come out so the nice bartender gave me a plate of pigs trotters which someone didn't claim because we looked like we needed more meat.

Scallops were like 5cm across, must source maine scallops when back home.
Why are we bothering with tiny ones?

We went around to check out a few more of the places but by this time we were really quite stuffed and couldn't be bothered dealing with the crowds so we just went to a quiet bar that didn't have pinxtos and watched Australia disappoint in the pool again.

Friday morning we did some shopping then went for a walk around La Concha bay to the edge of it. There's some metal sculptures drilled into the rocks there which were installed called "wind combs". I think the sculpturist also designed this tunnel that when there's a big swell creates a blowhole that comes out of the pavement nearby. Unfortunately it was low tide when we got there so we didn't get to see the blowholes in action.

The wind combs

After stopping for a coffee we went to A Fuego Negro again, because we're fatties and it's awesome. This time, amongst others like "frozen cheese with anchovies" (a whipped cream cheese semi-freddo type thing), we had a dessert which is called "regalize it" and is like a little pot leaf in soil. (We worked out later in Biarritz that regalize is Basque for dessert or something when we saw it on an icecream shop). I went for a swim after lunch as the sun was out and managed to catch a few waves, the swell was quite good, about 3ft.

When it was dinner time we went back to the jamon and scallop place before it was due to open and camped it out at the bar next door waiting for 8pm. Once it was open we got inside and secured a precious standing bar spot. This time the guy asked for my name when he took the order, I said Ryan, then got the que? back and tried spelling it in the spanish pronunciation but it was getting us nowhere so I said "Ryan" again and he said "wine?" and I was like yep that's fine much to the amusement of the 2 Aussies I was ordering next to. Anyway when our orders came out he yelled out WINE! and I was like SI! and there were many lols had.

Can you guess what we did afterwards? Aw yeah watching the olympics back at our favourite bar.

Anyway to summarise, I could easily live in San Sebastian at least during the summer months, its freaking awesome, has a lot of history and the people there are really nice.

San Sebastian is a pretty small place

Melting in Madrid

We left Toledo for the drive to Madrid which was not very far, and curiously along a freeway where we barely saw any other cars. We arrived and parked the car in a car park near Plaza Mayor which was near where we staying. This car park was the stinger of the trip - 30 Euros a night (odd considering our hotel was 55 Euros a night). Anyway, we just wanted to dump the car nearby for a few nights so just sucked up the 90 Euros.

Churros and chocolate and coffee

After stopping for a coffee and some churros we then hauled our bags through the massive Plaza Mayor and made our way to our hotel which was right in the centre of everything. On the walk to the hotel we had seen a little bar nearby advertising "Vinos generoso". With our now near fluent Spanish we were able to translate that as "generous wines" which had our names written all over it. So we stopped by and Ryan ordered a beer while eagerly awaited one of the generous wines. The waiter then comes out with something slightly bigger than a shot glass of wine. I'm still not sure whether he was serious or not. Anyway I had to order 2, to accompany some garlic prawns! We continued to wander around and came across a place Ryan had read about that had 1 Euro bocadillos and 1 Euro drinks - kind of a Spanish fast food place but at those prices it was hard to resist!

All for 4 Euros!

After stopping by plaza Santa Ana when it was starting to get very hot, we then freshened up in the hotel for a bit before heading out to an area called La Latina which has a heap of tapas bars. Although it was a Sunday, this place was jumping with people filling up the tapas bars and spilling out on to the street. There were lots of pintxo bars (where the tapas are on display and you help yourself). We stopped in at a couple but then sat down in one which we found on trip advisor which was a bit more fancy, and had some yummy sliders (mini burgers) and some sort of mixed tapas with prawns and different meats. So tender, yum!

Royal Palace

The next morning we went and had a coffee at mercado de San Miguel, a market place (mainly full of tourists) but with lots of little stands selling different foods and tapas that you can eat there or buy to take home. It was pretty early and quiet so we just had a coffee and a mini hot dog/bocadillo thing, then headed to the Royal Palace nearby, a beautiful building in a massive square. Madrid has some really grand and beautiful architecture.

Ryan waiting to order surrounded by his favourite meat

By this time it was starting to heat up. This time of year in Madrid is very hot - the mornings are pleasant (low-mid 20s) but by 2pm it's a stinking 37 degrees or so and stays that way until around 9pm. The whole shutting down shop and siesta-ing is a completely valid idea. So we went back to the mercado de San Miguel for a snack (some oysters and truffle arancini balls) and a wine, then stopped in at Musee del Jamon, a tapas bar just downstairs from our hotel which has a million legs of jamon hanging from the ceiling and dirt cheap tapas/food plates/drinks. We got 1 coffee, 1 wine, 1 beer and a little plate of food for just over 3 Euros!

Ryan eagerly awaiting the suckling pig at Botin

We then retreated to the safety of the air-con in the hotel for a couple of hours or so until we were ready to head out to dinner at Botin, the world's oldest restaurant which has been running since 1725! It's a bit touristy, but hey we had to do it and apparently the food is good. They were right - we ordered a few of their specialty dishes including the suckling pig, and they were all divine!

Plaza de Cibeles by day

The next day we got up fairly late, and stopped for a coffee and some brekky before heading down to a big park area, then attempted to go to one of Madrid's many famous art galleries. We had picked Musee Reina Sofia because it had more contemporary art, but once we got there we discovered it shut. Dang, we'd forgotten to look that up before, but I remembered that the Louvre was shut on Tuesdays too. Well there goes our attempt at getting some culture in Madrid. It was already fairly hot by this stage, so we had a fairly lazy afternoon, bought a Spanish soccer jersey which we have both agreed to share, and then just chilled in the hotel for the rest of the stinking hot arvo.

Plaza de Cibeles by night

Later that evening we had arranged to meet up with Beverly, my good friend's sister who has been living in Madrid for a few years, so we met her outside her work and then went to a swish little tapas bar not far away for a drink and a chat. It was really interesting hearing a bit about some of the strange ways Spain functions! And surprising to hear how hard Spanish professionals work - a 12 hour day is pretty normal! We stuck around afterwards for some tapas which was pretty yum, including our best tortilla of the trip. Then on the way home stopped in for a night cap at a bar showing the Olympics, which we have been watching a fair bit of each evening now if we can!

The next morning it was check out time, so we dumped our bags back in the car in the expensive car park, and had some churros and chocolate and coffee at San Gimes, the oldest churreria in Madrid, before making the drive to one of my favourite towns, San Sebastian.


And yes, I have put on like 5 kilos.