The Menu: Basque Country
How does one pick a honeymoon location?
When you reach your 30s and you have done a fair amount of travel, you know what you value in travel. Maybe you like a relaxing beach vacation. Maybe you want to see the sights in historic cities. Maybe you just want to #traveltoeat.
And if you get married in your 30s, perhaps after two years of pandemic-related delays, let’s just say you’ve thought a lot about your honeymoon. Maybe you want a trip that hits the best of ALL worlds.
If you’re like me, an important consideration in choosing a lifelong partner (romantically, not ones you met in kindergarten like Jen), is if they enjoy eating as much as you do. So while Scott most certainly does not enjoy the beach as much as I do, he is a great partner, and he was on board with getting me some beach time, perhaps because it came with the promise of some epic eating.
When Scott and I started tossing around ideas for honeymoon locations, we came up with Biarritz independently of each other. That’s how Biarritz, a small beach town on the west coast of France in the Basque region became the starting point for planning our trip.
Our epic trip began with two nights in Amboise, a town in the Loire Valley. We château-hopped around the region before driving 5 hours down to Biarritz. There I got my beach fill before we headed back north to finish out the honeymoon in Paris, as one does when you’re basic AF.
But in honor of Basque Country cuisine being the starting point for our honeymoon, I am starting my honeymoon posts by telling you about everywhere (and everything) we ate in Biarritz and the surrounding towns. The food was BEYOND.
Maison Adam
OK so Maison Adam isn’t a place we actually ate AT, but we got our first taste of Basque Country treats with these welcome macarons from our hotel, Hôtel le Café de Paris. Maison Adam makes traditional Basque macarons supposedly with the same recipe used to make macarons for Louis XIV. These little delights were more rustic, cakier, and chewier than their Parisian counterparts and vanilla-flavored without being overly sweet.
Le Comptoir du Foie Gras
On the recommendation of one of my favorite Instagrammers who happens to hale from Biarritz, our first dinner in Biarritz was at Le Comptoir du Foie Gras. In Basque Country, tapas are called pintxos (pronounced peen-chos) and pintxos are fucking delicious. In addition to tomatoes and burrata (give your bitch some burrata!), we had foie gras (yes, I felt guilty but I figured I should try the local specialty once), Basque pâté, and duck rilletes. It was a great start to our culinary tour of Biarritz.
Le Tandem
After poking into one spot that was rated as having Biarritz’s best brunch only to find out they only have brunch on Sundays and it wasn’t Sunday, we landed on Le Tandem, a cute spot with a view of the beach that felt simultaneously tiki and French (like much of Biarritz). I had an awesome avocado toast with poached eggs as we watched the sky clear for a perfect beach day.
Le Bleu Café
While Scott shares my love of food, as previously mentioned, he does not share my love for the beach and has a far lower tolerance for roasting in the sun. After an hour or so, he made his way back to Le Bleu Café, which conveniently has a large shaded patio overlooking the portion of the beach where I napped. He did the French thing, and chilled there, people-watching, until I realized I had a blotchy sunburn and joined him for some refreshing drinks and snacks.
Bistroquet Biarritz
Admittedly, Bistroquet Biarritz (a.k.a. Chez BB) was not our first choice for dinner the night that we landed there, but there was a music festival happening near where we planned to eat, and we couldn’t get a table. The food was excellent though, and the service was even better. I loved my raspberry mocktail and the seafood and croquets. I especially loved that the English menu was advertising a “Top Gun” drink. Felt right.
Mokafina + Les Halles
We scheduled a food tour in San Sebastién, about 45 minutes away on the Spanish side of Basque Country. But since we are who we are, we wanted to grab a quick bite first, and croissants and coffee at Mokafina hit the spot. Mokafina happens to be right next to Biarritz’s food market and hall (Les Halles), so we stopped in and picked up some cheese, fruit, and a mini Gateau Basque, a traditional cake with either cherry or cream filling, and one of the bites I am still thinking about. I also managed to procure my first iced coffee of the trip at a stall called Lobita. The thing about France is that even though it’s just as hot there as it is here, Europe just isn’t as into ice as we are and I found it hard to get coffee that was 1) iced and 2) takeout. So this was a treat. What can I say, I’m a savage American and I like my coffee cold and attached to my hand wherever I am going.
148 Gastroleku (San Sebastién)
Less of a treat is the fact that we probably shouldn’t have spent any time in Les Halles at all because due to a series of unfortunate events that are too boring to relay, we got to San Sebastién late and missed the start of our food tour. We navigated our way to the second and third stops, but the group did not arrive at either one. Listen, Jen and I have cut it real close on some of the tours we’ve done due to our subpar geographical skills, but we’ve never missed one, and this was a little traumatic. However, 148 Gastroleku was the third spot, and they were expecting our group too. They even had a table reserved for the group. But the staff was nice enough to help us call the tour company to confirm they had indeed taken a different route, and then we had a delicious lunch there anyway and they took good care of us. It was not the culinary experience I had hoped for in San Sebastién, but we had a good meal, great sangria, and got to see a beautiful city.
La Diva (St. Jean-de-Luz)
On the way back from San Sebastién, we stopped in another Basque town called St. Jean-de-Luz, partly because Rick Steves claims it is his favorite spot in Basque Country. He says Biarritz is not worth visiting, but St. Jean-de-Luz is apparently all he wants out of life, and I am here to tell you, this man has it backward. St. Jean-de-Luz was cute, but it’s got nothing on Biarritz, OK? Regardless, we had a pretty good dinner at La Diva. We started with prawns in red pepper sauce, and Scott had calamari. My steak was just so-so (not pictured) but my peach melba dessert was awesome, and so was Scott’s French toast dessert (“pain perdue” in France, or “lost bread”).
Mälis
Our last full day in Biarritz was possibly my favorite day of our whole honeymoon. Scott and I started the day with surfing lessons (!), which I loved loved loved and was quite a workout. On our way back to the hotel, we came across Mälis and stopped in because the offerings looked A++…and THEY WERE. This was the only vegan-friendly spot I saw the whole trip, and even though I am far from vegan, I appreciated it. Scott had a bagel and lox and I had arguably the best French toast…er…pain perdue I’ve ever had. If you’re wondering what’s on it, that would be perfectly ripe white peaches, strawberry jam, kiwi, and lavender. I MEAN. Also, check out the cute beggar pup who has his own bed inside and whose mom works there and had her birthday that day. We were there to see them greet her with “joyeux anniversaire” and a beautiful strawberry tart.
Bar Jean
Our last dinner in Biarritz was at Bar Jean, another Christina Caradona recommendation, though if you walked anywhere close to this place during dinner hours, anyone could tell you this place was IT. Family-owned and run, we had langostines and risotto, an amazing mushroom tart, patatas bravas, and an excellent cheese plate. It was the perfect last pintxos dinner.
Le Café de Paris
Our hotel in Biarritz, Hôtel le Café de Paris, has — you guessed it — an excellent café. And even though it’s technically a hotel restaurant, it is 100 percent worth mentioning. We had some excellent cocktails here over the course of our stay, and the continental breakfast on our last morning was unlike any continental breakfast I’ve ever had at an American hotel. I MEAN look at this spread — lox, Iberico ham, juice, coffee, tea, yogurt, jam, apple sauce, fresh fruit, baguettes, croissants. Can you even imagine getting something like this in the States? Lol please.
So Biarritz — come for the beach, stay for the food?
-Staci
