Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Biarritz - Sleep & Eat

Biarritz - Where we stayed

I'm not one for big chain hotels. I prefer to stay at small boutique places. Luckily enough, Biarritz has quite a few in the town center. We stayed at the charming Hotel Maison du Lierre which faces a public garden & located 5 mins walk to the beach. It feels very homely & I particularly like the breakfast room.

Hotel Maison du Lierre
3 avenue du jardin public




Where we ate

During the long drive to Biarritz, all I could think of was tapas & sangria. Bar Jean came highly recommended & it didn't disappoint. Many of the locals would drop by for a glass of sangria & some tapas before heading off. You can order tapas from the menu or just pick from the selection at the bar. On top of the tapas, we even ordered paella (it was definitely way too much for 2 persons but after a few glasses of sangria, does it matter ?) & it was excellent. This turned out to be one of our best meals during the trip.

Bar Jean
5 rue halles





Casa Juan Pedro

We were actually checking out Chez Albert @ Port des Pecheurs for lunch & even though it's mentioned in all the guide books & the menu looks good, I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy. So we decided to head 2 doors down to the friendly & more casual Casa Juan Pedro instead. The restaurant is run by twin brothers, Jean & Pierre hence the name Casa Juan Pedro.

We had, what else but, sangria & tapas. The food, like the restaurant, is simple & casual. X had a grilled dorade which was excellent. My chipirons a l'encre (a basque speciality of baby squids cooked in ink) could be better.

Casa Juan Pedro
port des pecheurs


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