A Domestic Day in Biarritz
11:21 PM
My wife Paula and I used the free day in Biarritz to take care of some domestic activities before heading to the beach. It's not really practical to try to pack two weeks of clothes and haul them around. Some hotels do offer laundry service, but then you have to keep your fingers crossed that it gets done in time before you have to leave town. It's also pricey. The Hotel Marbella does not provide laundry service, and we needed to wash clothes, so it was off to the local lavrie (laundromat) to get the job done. Since this was a weekday, the laundromat was empty except for an elderly woman and the lady running the laundromat. We first tried to get the soap dispenser to work, but it would not take our change. The eldery woman who was waiting for the dryer to finish came over and tried to help us. She mimed the steps to take, and we tried it again. It still didn't work, so she called for the madame running the shop. Madame came down the stairs from her ironing and reset the machine, and finally it worked! After about an hour or so we were done with the laundry and ran by the local supermarche (supermarket) to get some supplies for lunch for that day and the next. Not only did buying groceries instead of eating out for lunch save some euros, but it also gave us some insight of everyday life there. We were able to pick up a loaf of bread, some ham, cheese, drinks, and dessert for about thirty euro. It was enough to last two days for the both of us. There was plenty of choices for fresh fruit as well. When you buy fruit, you must have it weighed and tagged in the produce department, otherwise the cashier will not ring it up. We found this out at the first grocery store we shopped at in Nice. We held up the line while Paula ran back and had the cherries and pears weighed. In Biarritz we bought pre-packed strawberries instead.
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