St. Jean de Luz is a beautiful little seaside town on the western coast of France. It’s just ten miles from France’s border with Spain. After not-the-smoothest day of traveling, we arrived this afternoon. Now it time to go exploring and find some refreshments.
We had our share of snags today, but looking back, they weren’t that terrible. Just stressful and tiring. Sometimes travel days are like that. But we’re here now, and that’s all that matters.
Our hotel faces the beach and the Bay of Biscay – a beautiful setting. We’re located at the edge of a pedestrian zone that extends from one end of town to the other. Perfect.
We were warned that a French holiday week-end starts tomorrow, and the town would be jam-packed, but when we headed out the streets were quiet.
A Tourist Destination for the French
It didn’t take long to realize that this is a tourist town. But not for everyone. This is a vacation destination for Parisians when they want to get out of town. It’s not on most travelers’ radars.
The main walk-street is lined with shops – the kind that beckon tourists – French or otherwise – to come in and spend a few euros. We’re going to spend a few euros, alright, but for now, it’s going to be for beer, wine, and something to eat. Anything else can come later.
We’re in Basque country, and Basques are famous for their tapas. Hold on… it’s the Spanish that are famous for tapas, right?
Sí, sí, but guess where they got the idea? As we would come to find out, the Spanish are known for quite a few things that were Basque before they were Spanish.
Basque people don’t call tapas “tapas.” They call them “pintxos.” Whoa.
Pinch What?
The Basque language is wild-looking. Written Basque has lots of x’s and z’s. Maybe you were wondering why english words don’t have many x’s or z’s. It’s because the Basques have used them all up!
Basque words look like they’d be impossible to pronounce, but many of them are surprisingly easy. “Pintxos” is pronounced, “PINCH-OSE.” One piece is called a pintxo. It sounds like “Pancho” with an “pinch” instead of a “paunch.” See? Easy.
We’re hungry and thirsty, so while exploring St. Jean de Luz, we have our eye out for a pintxos bar.
It was too early in the afternoon for eating most establishments to be open, but we found one at the far end of town. It was a French bistrot, not a pintxos bar, but we were happy just to find anyplace open for business.
We went inside and were greeted by a friendly young guy who gave us each a menu. I usually do OK with my French, but I didn’t recognize half of the appetizers on the menu. Thank goodness for Google Translate.
Ooh La La
One option was chipirons à la plancha. “Chipirons” are squid. I was thinking “fried calamari,” but who knows what these would be like?
Or we could have had eperlans frits. I knew that “frit” is fried, but what’s an eperlan? It’s a smelt. Oh boy. Fried small fish like anchovies or sardines are one of my favorite things.
So eperlans frits woud be a plate of little fried fish, which I’ve had before, by accident. (They were awesome). But I knew I’d be eating that plate of little fried fish myself, so… what else is on this menu?
Jambon Bellota. I knew what this was. Jambon is ham. Bellota are acorns. Jambon Bellota is Spanish, (Iberian), cured ham made from pigs that have lived a stress-free, idyllic life, eating nothing but acorns. Iberian jamon bellota is the best cured ham in the world. Just ask any Iberian!
So many interesting choices. I can’t decide.
To be continued…
Great photo of St. Jean de Luz’ main walk-street. Credit: iStock.com/Jean-Luc Ichard
