The comp in Mundaka ended, so Luis and Makoto picked me up and we headed up to Hossegor for the good beach break waves, wide open beaches, and my first meal out in a restuarant....not as good as Mara's cooking!

All the beach-front parking lots in France are filled with travelling surfers living in their cars. It is such a cool scene, one that I took part in when Sahara was a baby. Her dad and I spent 2 months living in a big green van with a make-shift bed in the back that we had built. In fact she took her first bite of real food (baguette!) in the parking lot that you see in these photos. I can't wait to come back her with her, and Eden and Violet one day.....

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Staying in Guetthary, in the South-West of France with Mara, an old friend from Santa Cruz. She lives in the Alps, but has been coming here for the Sept./Oct. surf season every year for the last ten years. Mara is a chef by trade, had the fridge stocked when I arrived, and immediately began working her magic, with me taking close notes. Staying with her is like going to a French cooking school.

Makoto and his friend Luis were covering the WCT surfing comp 2-hours south in Mundaka, Spain, and graciously brought one of my boards over from S.F. in order to save me the cost and hassle. Merci! They delivered my board in hopes of finding surf up our way, but it was dead flat, so we sat and got gacked-out on too many cups of strong French coffee as a way of fighting our jet lag. 

The next five days brought very little swell and a lot of wind and rain, so I keep myself busy hanging out at the Biarritz Latin Film Festival. Biarittz is called Paris-by-the-Sea because of it's beautiful old buildings and urban city feel. The film fest was housed directly across from the main surf break in the Casino building, as well as in big tents on the adjoining deck. The whole scene was magical, with free music every night, and  cheap street-style food and drink. I saw and amazing film from Uruaguy, in Spanish, of course, and with French sub-titles. My mind is on a language high as I have been listening/speaking/reading in French, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

On Saturday the sun finally came out, the wind died and the surf party was back on in Biarritz.  

Next post...... on to Hossegor's beach breaks in the North. Thanks for reading.

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