Bilbao & San Sebastian

Off to Spain we go again. A roadtrip that will take in Bilbao and another night in the wonderful, wonderful San Sebastian. Bilbao is about 2 1/4 hours from Salies. This is the longest we have travelled as a group but really, its only as long as getting to Gran's in Putaruru (Hi Gran!). The children, like usual, were wonderful on the road.

There is only one reason you go to Bilbao - Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa - the Goog. She is without doubt in the top 5 if not THE most amazing modern building on the planet. Built out of titanium sheets, the Goog will never lose its incredible impact. This spectacular impact is increased due to its location by the water in the industrial, terra cotta coloured city of Bilbao.

We all had a great day looking around the museum. Luckily this was the second time I had got to see the Goog. The last time was on the day it opened 11 years ago. Back then, all I could think about was getting back to NZ and Chris. Now she is here by my side with my 2 children. Nice


The Guggenheim


San Sebastian - what can you say. What an amazing place. We booked the same place as last time - crisp, white cotton sheets and all.

This trip we explored the old part of town. The original bit renowned for its plethora of tapas bars and restaurants. It has a seedy, dirty side to it. Much more character - perfect for taking Grandma to. We ate and drank, drugged the kids with coca cola again so they would stay up, then ate and drank some more. We laughed and laughed and had, once again, the best time. The funniest bit was when Jo's stroller collapsed - hilarious. Nana nearly wet herself!

The next day started S L O W L E Y. Shopping and exploring was the order of the day. We ended up back in the old town at one of the pintxos bars we visited the night before. Its hard to explain, you kinda had to be there but this man called Miguel completely fell in love with us. He took off with the kids and brought them all packs of lollies, pulled me up to the bar and made me skull a cider in front of everyone, bought us beers and more drinks - we were the focus of the entire bar. It got to a point where we felt like we had to leave in case he gave us something else - it was getting embarrassing. We left that place having heard his life story - 3 kids with one more on the way. First kids mother is in Uruguay. Second kids mother is in El Salvador. The third and impending fourth's mother is in Brazil! He then gave me his addresses and telephone numbers in San Sebastian and Brazil. Amazing. People love us, cant work out why. Its either because we are New Zealanders or our kids are cute - we think... Those kind of experiences make the trip.

The day then ended with an impromptu swim at the beach and a short drive home. Viva espagna!! See ya next time.


Jamie, Ben and Jack behind the bar in San Sebastian



Out on the town

Bayonne, a drunken evening and a feast

The feast


Bayonne


BAYONNE

The lastest French city to feel the onslaught of the Schwarzies was Bayonne.

Bayonne is yet another beautiful, old city about 45 minutes to the North West of our base - Salies de Bearn. Bayonne is famous for its raw ham - Jambon de Bayonne. We have tried many versions of this delicious ham - the region we are in is famous for it. We are constantly passing the white cows or "boeuf blanc" as they are known on our many travels. The Bayonne version is streets ahead as far as we are concerned. We had a delicious lunch in Bayonne at a beautiful little place that was situated close to the covered market, by the river. We then purchased our evening treats from the same market. Gorgeous thin slices of the aforementioned Jambon de Bayonne eaten with a juicy, fresh melon.

A DRUNKEN EVENING

That evening, after a few drinks, we all went off to bed. Molly to the top floor - her domain as head of the household and somewhere to escape les enfants. I was checking my email and Joanna began to brush her teeth. For some reason she stuck her head out the shuttered window and heard some comotion coming from the end of our usually very quiet little street. It was coming from the local restaurant "La Terraces". Of course we had to investigate.

Within 5 minutes, Jo, Chris and I once again had our glad rags on were ready to party. We realised that nothing may well happen and were prepared to come straight back home. Jo had already brushed her teeth anyway...

We walked all the way to the bar - about 20 metres - and ended up having the most hilarious, drunken night yet that finished with us walking all 20 metres back home at 2am. Not sure what it was, but our French rocked that evening. Probably the confidence that a little alcohol gives. We chatted away with our new friends - Michael, Jean-Louis, Karen, Girard and Jean-Paul. They were our best pals. We bought the first round - trois bieres - and the rest of the evening was on them. The people here are SO lovely, we are so accepted. We get the feeling that as New Zealanders, we are somehow more accepted.

We drank heaps, laughed heaps and talked shit - in French. It was an amazing, impromptu night. Sometimes those unplanned ones are the best.

A FEAST

Every single restaurant recommendation has been the same name. La Belle Auberge in nearby Castigne. Today we went there for lunch at 12pm - all 7 of us.

It was stunning. Our menu du jour cost 13 euros each - about NZ$26.00. The kids menu enfants was 8 euros each. Its hard to explain but it was the best food experience yet. For our 26 euros, we got 4 courses

Garbure - the local soup of the region. A huge bowl of a gorgeous fresh vegetables and broth that we served into our own bowls with a large ladle.

Crudites - 5 abundant trays of beautiful fresh veges from their garden. Celeriac remoulade, tiny piquant radishes, the sweetest cucumber, beetroot and succulent strands of carrot with an awesome vinaigrette. We handed around the trays "Waltons" style and feasted on these wonderful veges.

Caneton sauvage roti et haricots vertes au beurre - crispy roast duck with green beans in butter. Oh yeah! We each got a huge piece of duck and heaps of beans.

Dessert au choix- we got to choose off the a la carte dessert menu from the following

Coupe de glace ou sorbet
Creme brulee
Flan au caramel
Ile flottante
Profiteroles au chocolat
Tarte aux pommes
Gateau Basque
Fromage de pays
Tarte tartin
Salade de fruits
Gateau creole

Where would you go? What would you choose? A creme brulee, 2 tarte tartins and a fromage de pays later and we were so full that Monty Pythons Mr Creosote came to mind. Our wonderful waitress Alice then suggested we move to the garden to enjoy an espresso. The perfect end to a perfect lunch. All for NZ$26.00 each - utterly amazing

a bientot mes amies.

Tomorrow Bilbao and San Sebastian. Thursday, London. Monday, Paris. Home in two weeks.

Castillion de Castets et Saint Emillion

Chris and Monique overlooking St Emillion


Chateau la Grave


Our gite in Castillion de Castets is small; Castillion de Castets itself is tiny. Before you enter every city or village in France, you have a sign stating the name of the city or village. And when you leave that city or village, you have the same sign with a line through it signifying that you are leaving. Its quite handy really.

The gap between the entering sign and the leaving sign in Castillion was about 50m.

The infrastructure in Castillion de Castets consists of a 2 pump petrol station, a shop and the town hall - c'est tout. Waiheke feels like London compared to this town. Yet somehow it is enchanting. Small can be good. Think of warts. Would you rather have a small one or a big one? Its just another aspect to the enduring adventure we are experiencing.

Our last full day in Castillion was spent at our gite with the goats. It was a lazy day. We read, wrote, ate, played ping pong and slept. It was the first day where we spent the better part of the day doing nothing. It has been hard enough having nothing to do let alone doing nothing all day. Hard but good. Jason made a serious dent in his 4th book. Christine made a serious dent in her 6th book. Jamie continued to write her hilarious daily diary and Ben pissed us off. Ben is being seriously challanged here in France. He is having to make his own fun and keep himself busy. Jamie is totally embracing the whole thing, she has been absolutely, totally amazing. In fact she is a revelation. I am so proud of them both. I have no doubts that this holiday will have a hugely positive inpact on them. I am so proud. Anyway, I digress...

We did have one plan for this lazy day. Not just a plan, but a highlight of our trip. It is harvest time here in the Gironde. As previously mentioned, our host is a 2nd generation winemaker. At 5.30pm, Laure invited us to travel the 20 minutes to Jean-Paul's winery. The grapes were coming in at 6pm and it was awesome. Although the grapes we saw being harvested were merlot, the focus of our visit was sauterne. This interested Christine and I as we had not had any previous experience with this grape.

Jean-Paul gave us the royal tour finishing with him taking us through his two 2005 Sauternes to taste the comparison (both from different soils - 1 fossilised oyster shells and the other gravel), his 2008 Rose, his 2008 Bordeaux Blanc (a blend of semillion and sauvignon gris), his 2005 Cabernet and his 1990 Sauterne - rich, syrypy, sweet like mead or honey. He would have offered us more if he had more to offer. What an experience, we were so lucky.

We got back to Castillion via the canal de midi - the one that Rick Stein travelled down on his TV show. When we got home, Percy (snigger) who I had previously heard from Laure that he had never been beaten at table tennis EVER, challanged me to a game. I dicked him 2 games to love. Nice. I still got it, I'm old, but I still got it. Anyway, I dont think my manhood would have survived a beating in ping pong by a 17 year old boy called Percy.

The next day we went to Saint Emillion - a very famous wine region overlooking the Dordogne. It was a 45 minute drive north from Castillion. A wonderful day was spent tasting Grand Cru wines. We tasted a few, drank a few and bought a few. Christine's step brother and his family drove from Bordeaux to meet us there. We had a lovely day in this extremely beautiful city.

We then had a beautiful 45 minute drive through the masses of grapes back to Bordeaux where Andrew (Christine's step brother) cooked us an O for awesome Spanish stew. The main component of the dish was an artisan made wild boar chorizo he picked up in Spain. Completely delicious with a Spanish Rioja. The day ended with another 45 minute drive for me back to the peace and calm of Castillion and our warm, cosy bed.

We left this fabulous wine region the next morning. It was sad to leave our hosts Laure and Jean-Paul, they will be strong friends. Our "nuclear family" jaunt was over, back to Salies we went, after another 2 1/2 hour road trip.

Being 7 is great, being 4 was special. We continue to be having the best time ever. Off to Bayonne tomorrow to try the famous Jambon du Bayonne, Bilbao and San Sebastian on Tuesday and London on Thursday. Good times

Hello, Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Unscramble this sentence - to We're Bordeaux! off

Doing what we do and being part of an operation that makes Bordeaux style wines in New Zealand, Bordeaux was always going to be an important part of our journey.

At lunchtime on Saturday, we were off. This time just us - just Jason, Chris, Jamie and Ben. Awesome - 5 nights and 6 days on our own. Not that we aren't really enjoying being 7, but a bit of "nuclear family time" is fantastic.

The grand plan is one night in Talence (a small city just outside Bordeaux city - about 10 mins by tram) then 4 nights in a little gite in Castillion de Castets - a tiny village in the middle of Sauterne country. We approached the gite with much trepidation based on the last outcome when we booked accommodation via the internet. As it turns out, once again we did not get what we expected - but I'll get to that story a bit later.

The reason we spent a night in Talence was because Christine's step brother is currently living there with his wife Monique and his 9 year old boy Dylan. Andrew is currently on sabbatical from his job as a Professor at San Francisco University. Spending time with Monique and Dylan was wonderful. She cooked us a fabulous 5 course "French style" menu. We went to bed that night in her lovely apartment replete and dreaming of the day to follow.

We spent the next day in Bordeaux city with Monique and Dylan, unfortunately Andrew was away. Being a Sunday, everything and I mean everything in France is closed. This, however, did not dampen our spirits. We had a lovely day in this wonderful city. We finished our day with a picnic of the obligatory baguettes, cheese, cured meats and tomato sitting under the trees in this spectacular park. We left Bordeaux and headed off towards our gite convinced we would be back for more.

We kinda got lost, but it was nice to see a little more of the region than we expected :)

We arrived in the pouring rain to see a note pegged to a fence saying " Bonjour Jason & Christine. It is raining so please toot the horn and we will come out" We tooted. Out comes Laure - an English lady that has lived in this tiny, tiny village for 30 years. Instantly we warmed to each other. It was like she was a relative - so warm and friendly. We hugged and kissed French style - thats not a French kiss, its a peck on both cheeks. A French kiss would have been completely inappropriate.

Laure showed us our gite which was small but wonderful. The price was amazing - NZ$70.00 a night with a meal and bouteille du vin on arrival included in the price. She then suggested we settle in and invited us down to the main house (read converted farmhouse built in the 1500's) for aperitifs before thay deliver our meal!

What a hoot. We met her husband Jean-Paul ( a winemaker like his father before him who spoke no English and kept running away from us) and the twins Percy (snigger) and Lilly - both bi lingual. We sat around until 9pm drinking pastis all revelling in each others company. What an experience for the Schwarzies! When we finally decided to leave, Laure said she would bring up our meal shortly.

OH MY GOD! Accompanied by another bottle of wine (the comlimentary one was a sauterne and already in the fridge) came a huge platter to start - pate de maison, foie gras, beautiful home grown tomatoes and lettuce, jambon de pays - raw ham etc etc. Amazing. To follow was a kind of shepards pie except the contents were duck confit, ceppes and parsley topped with mash and parmesan. Utterly delicious. To finish, a fig and custard tart. The figs were from one of the 3 massive trees in the garden heaving with fruit. I am not sure if because they know that we are in the food and wine business and therefore wanted to impress, but if this was standard then they are wonderful, generous hosts. We were blown away. We cant wait to spend more time with them. Percy (snigger, snigger) and Lilly are going to give the kids French lessons and on Tuesday, Jean-Paul is giving us a intimate tour of his winery - Chateau La Grave. Wow.

The next day (today)we went into Bordeaux city again and shopped and ate. I brought the jacket I found in San Sebastian but it wasn't available in my size. The meal was at a restaurant called L' Entrecote - entrecote is a beef steak. The restaurant opened in 1959 and was totally full over 4 levels. They served only steak with their famous sauce and as many frites as you can eat. One of our top 5 meals ever. I could talk all day about this but wont bore the uninterested. If you are interested, remember to ask us about this one. Unbelievable.

Now we are back in our little gite relaxing.

Good times, oh yeah, good times.

Pintxos

Somehow the food in Spain is better. Its hard to put into words as they are both in their own ways delicious.

Spanish food is more rustic. Its chunky (in flavour, not texture). Its has less finesse, but more flavour. Its utterly fantastic.

For those of you that aren't in the know, eating pintxos (the same as Tapas but come from the Basque region of Spain) is achieved in this manner.

1. Walk into a bar, and help yourself to whatever is on the counter. You will see many plates of glorious little bites. They range from 1 euro to 4 euros each.

2. Get yourself a beer and have another pintxos.

3. Continue until full or drunk or invariably both.

4. Tell the man behind the counter how many pintxos you had and pay. Thats right - you tell him, he doesn't tell you.

5. Move onto the next pintxos bar (unless too full or drunk).

Fantastic, glorious, wonderful

Ole!

Donastia

Sometimes you find yourself in odd places. Right now, its 4am and I am writing this from the bathroom of a little pension in San Sebastian (Donastia in Basque). When we set off from our sleepy little town of Salies de Bearn, little did we know of the adventure to follow.

The drive itself was lovely. We took the scenic route through St Jean de Luz and Hendeye from France into Spain. Coming into San Sebastian was crazy - but fun. Its pertinant to mention here that the driving habits of the French are quite different to the Spanish. Read - the Spanish are mad!

We had previously booked a little flat for 5 nights on the outskirts of San Sebastian. The plan was for Chris, Jamie, Ben and I to stay 2 nights then head off on our own to Bordeaux. Molester, Jo and Jack were going to stick around and explore the region.

Things don't always go to plan. And as you know, I like having a plan :)

The place was horrible. Filthy, no towels, small, not the right amount of beds (as stated on the internet) etc etc. We could not stay. Somehow, we managed to rangle the 675 euros back off the lady (about NZ$1500.00 - 300 euros deposit and 375 euros for the flat). She wasnt the owner - he was in Hong Kong. We didn't feel good about doing a runner but the guy had duped us and its a hell of a lot of money so, hey, we got the flock out of there! It was hilarious, us all sneaking out with all our bags trying to make sure no one heard or saw us...

We then had 2 possible scenarios. Head back home to Salies, or try to find last minute accommodation for 7 people with the town heaving due to a major film festival beginning tomorrow. Not at all likely. We referenced our trusty Lonely Planet and headed off into the mad, mad traffic to find something.

Believe it or not - we did! And an amazing place too. We are talking crisp white linen in the centre of town 50m from the beach beautiful! The cards just fall the right way sometimes.

About 30 minutes later, we had all showered, got our respective glad rags on and we hit the town. Watch out San Sebastian - here come the Schwarzies from Waiheke Island!

Many beers and pintxos later and I find myself on the bathroom floor writing this. Couldn't sleep, too pumped. Wow - amazing city. Awesome, stunning and delicious.

Pics will follow, cant wake my lovely family to load them yet.

What a day, what an adventure. Shared my first cortado with Chris today. Its where it all began - nice

LA FETE DU SEL

On the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of September, Salies experiences its biggest 2 days of the year - the Fete du Sel - The Salt Festival. Salies is known for the healing qualities of its thermal salt and this fete brings together artisans from all over the surrounding province of Landes.


Our little rue was right in the middle of it. We literally had it right on our doorstep. There were times over the weekend when we almost couldn't make it out of our front door due to the throngs of festival goers passing buy.

Rue de loume

We booked into lunch at our local restaurant - les Terrasses - at 3pm. We thought that we could escape the hoards and enjoy a quiet lunch with the family. Watch the video to see what happened...

Amazing, wonderful, totally mindblowing. the whole restaurant just burst into song.
Such joie de vivre. We dont sing enough. It is so cool

The Market in Orthez

Meat

Horse!

Jamie and veges

The main entrance

Foie gras!

Tomatoes and more tomatoes

Unbelievable market in a city about 25 minutes north of us. We spent hours there and had real difficulty dragging ourselves away. I think we spent about 90 euros (about NZ$190.00)!

We bought saucissons, two of the biggest duck breasts we have ever seen, amazing local jamon cut straight of the leg in front of our eyes, fresh goats cheese, amazing AMAZING handmade macaroons made by this little artisan man who was so proud of his product, a multitude of wonderful fruit and veg plus lots lots more.

Check out the photos

Love us

Three days in...

A typical day in Salies de Bearn

Our day starts with a lazy walk to one of many patteserie's in our little village - pain au chocolate, croissants, fiselle and the obligatory baguettes. We have been trying different pattesserie's out to find our favourite one. The best baguettes are crispy and light but they are all pretty good as you can imagine. The kids have cereal and pain au chocolate and the grown ups dip their croissants in their cafe au lait's.

Next up, Jason goes for a run in the early morning cooler temperatures and Jo, Chris, Molly and Jamie do yoga upstairs. Ben and Jack do boy stuff - you know, boy stuff.

We all then shower and thats where any sort of routine ends. The rest of our days are taken up by all of the following;

- popping around the corner to our "local" cafe. Cafe au lait in the morning (2.40 euros) or large beers in the afternoon (4.20 euros). The owner speaks about the same amount of English that we do French which is nice. we ask him to speak to us in French so we can continue to learn the language. He very politely corrects what we say which is fantastic. The best one was when Jason was explaining that why we were here in Salies and not somewhere else and that we were here in Salies with the family. Jason then refer to Christine as 'ma mari" which of course means "my husband". The correct way for Jason to refer to Christine is as "ma femme"

- taking lazy walks through the village only to come across chestnuts and hazelnuts in the trees and on the grounds which we scooped up and took home to devour. Actually, the chestnuts tasted like the black stuff you scrape off the oven tray when you haven't cleaned it for a few months. We put this down to our roasting technique rather than the chestnuts themselves.

- eating the most wonderful produce, meats and cheese on a daily basis. SO amazing.

- driving through the country side to hit the beach at on the coast. A great day spent swimming and reading.

- making friends of the local old geezer on our little street - Jacques. He happens to have the same name as little Jack so instantly bonded with us. It took a while for him to come around though due to little Jack ringing his doorbell 5 times then running off.... Now, hes our best friend, hes taken a particular liking to Jo :)

All in all, we are just relaxing and doing whatever comes our way. We are already planning excursions into Spain (San Sebastian and Bilbao next week) and Bordeaux the week after.

The heinekins are 9 euro for a pack of 24 and you can find very acceptable vin rouge ou vin blanc for 3 - 5 euros. Its not expensive to exist here which is fantastic.

This is just the most amazing little place. We are truly blessed to be here and cant think of a single thing that we would change. The village is very French so the total immersion thing is challanging at times but definately preferable to the alternative. Contrary to popular belief, every single French person that we have come across has been wonderful. They really appreciate you making the effort to speak their language. Many of them do not speak a word of English so in most cases, you dont have an option!

Must go now, off out to dinner with the kids very shortly. A little bistro around the corner called "Les terraces". Cant wait.

Bye for now

Love The Schwarzies

Nous sommes arrives!

WE ARE HERE!!

You soon realise how far we live away from Europe when you go through the trip we just went through. All up, it was 42 hours of ferry, taxis, flights and waiting in airports in foreign countries. So pretty much sitting on our respective arses for a long, long time.

It went something like this

1/2 hour - ferry from Matiatia to Auckland
1 hour - taxi from Auckland to Auckland Airport
2 1/2 hours waiting at Auckland Airport
3 1/2 hours - flight from Auckland to Brisbane
1 3/4 hours waiting in Brisbane
17 hours (!!!) - flight from Brisbane to Dubai
2 1/2 hours waiting in Dubai
6 1/2 hours - flight from Dubai to Paris
3 hours waiting in Paris
1 hour - flight from Paris to Biarritz
1 hour drive from Biarritz to Salies de Bearn

Apologies to all those nerds that just added that all up and disagree with my 42 hour calculation. I calculated the 42 hours by using my watch which I left on NZ time and worked out the times above by memory. Yeah, that means you Crutter

Chris and I got no sleep at all - thats nearly 2 full days without sleep. J and B caught a few hours here and there. Near the end (in Paris) they were falling asleep everywhere - even standing up! Its the tiredest I have ever been. I should have taken a photo of our respective eyes. Pack of smashed Jaffa's anyone?

Well worth it though because what we arrived to, as you can see below, was beyong our wildest dreams - hello Salies de Bearn. It is more beautiful than I ever imagined. Beautiful and old! The house next to us has 1601 on the outside. Makes you feel all young and New World. We just spent our first day here, all a bit tired but very happy. We walked around the village and went to the supermarket. All you foodies out there will appreciate that this was always going to be a highlight. Supermarkets in other countries are awesome.

We have unlimited internet access from our house so will be on the computer a few times a day so please email us! We are also able to telephone NZ whenever we want for as long as we want which is cool.

Must go, got nothing to do!

au revoir mon amies et ma famille, a bientot

Love Jason and Chris

Talk soon