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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2018 11:44:51 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2018 11:52:56 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2018 12:11:53 GMT
This sign explained all of the roadworks. If you don't know what a tram-bus is, it is basically a tram on tires without rails. Specific stations are built along the way, so it can't stop just anywhere. Many of these system use overhead electrical power, other do not -- in any case it is too early in the project to know exactly how they are going to do it. Two lines are planned, one of which will certainly replace the famous bus line 8 Biarritz-Anglet-Bayonne which is what I took back to my hotel.
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Post by bjd on Feb 19, 2018 12:26:59 GMT
Now you see why I have always preferred Bayonne! Actually, they could just call it a bus, since that's what a tram on wheels is. I think most of the local surfers go to the next beach south from the Grande Plage that you show in your photos. They go at the Plage des Basques, where there are rocks too and almost no beach.
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Post by onlyMark on Feb 19, 2018 13:46:49 GMT
"Trolleybus" in the UK.
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 19, 2018 14:32:21 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2018 15:13:49 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 19, 2018 15:44:43 GMT
I know nothing about Biarritz except that in my mind it's somehow always been associated with wealth. The houses you show on the way into town would seem to bear that out.
Is it a port, or is the lighthouse there to warn boats away from the dangerous rocks?
Probably the city looks more appealing when the sun is out, but I have to say that what I'm taking away from this report is mostly an appreciation of your beach and ocean pictures. Also, I don't hate the town hall. It's an interesting nod to the older architecture and downright beautiful compared to the ugly, view-blocking condo buildings you show. Those seem to infest most beautiful seaside places.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 19, 2018 16:19:12 GMT
They are a plague in nearby Spain. I liked the moody beachfront pictures, but there is some really deplorable development in that town. I think a tram-bus always has more than one element, articulated.
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Post by amboseli on Feb 19, 2018 16:56:32 GMT
Excellent beach and ocean pictures. We have been there a few years ago in the midst of summer but we had about the same misrable weather, be it - maybe - a bit warmer.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2018 17:04:06 GMT
Is it a port, or is the lighthouse there to warn boats away from the dangerous rocks? Biarritz is not really a port -- the lighthouse would be to warn boats about the rocks. The city apparently has a tiny fishing port with not enough room for even the yachts of millionaires. I'm sure there is a place for them to go not too far away.
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Post by bjd on Feb 19, 2018 19:28:58 GMT
Actually Biarritz is quite old -- in the 13th century it was already a fishing port. The locals were particularly known for hunting whales but the last whale was caught in 1686. The locals then went further away fishing and doing some pirating too.
But it stayed small until the second half of the 19th century when Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, decided to go there and the resort boomed. It was popular among the wealthy in the "belle époque", as can be seen by the fancy houses Kerouac showed.
Surfing started there in 1956 and continues today. There is also a casino. It's quite lively in summer but it's just not a place I really like.
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Post by mossie on Feb 19, 2018 19:40:01 GMT
Definitely not seaside weather.
Those poor trees at the market entrance have really been pollarded at the wrong end.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 28, 2018 23:24:44 GMT
If I had gone to Biarritz a week later, I could have seen this.
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