Paris and biarritz recs

Regional Dining Discussions France
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Hi everyone it’s my first post. I’m a regular on ftc and they directed me to this board for some French recommendations.

We’ll be doing Paris for 3 days in July and biaritz and surroundings for 5 days. Have some questions and would love to get some advice.

1.What is the best neighborhood to stay in with a young family that has good food in Paris?
2. Any Paris restaurant recs? All levels and price ranges welcome. Are there any can’t miss places we must go to?
3. Any good Biarritz and surrounding area restaurant recommendations? We’ll be there during bastille day!

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It’s been a few years since we’ve been in that region, but we went as a day trip from st. Sebastian to lunch in Sare at Olhabidea. A quick Google search shows that it still is excellent. It’s a farmhouse with a beautiful terrace and we had a lovely meal there. We also enjoyed St Jean de Luz for a stroll, souvenir shopping, and some ice cream.

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Welcome!

We were in Paris last year. I can’t say I have food recommendations, but others did, so here is my thread.

We were in the Biarritz area about five years ago, and I believe that’s the Basque area. We weren’t there so much for food, but I believe there was a more recent post with a similar question.

Not sure if it overlaps with your travels, but here it is.

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Awesome I will book mark sare.

Was st Jean de la luz worth checking out? Would a short couple of hour trip suffice or do you need longer?

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Thanks for the links @shrinkrap ill check them out!

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We only spent a couple hours in St Jean de Luz after lunch as it was a day trip from SS and we wanted to get back before the parking lot was full for the night! :rofl:

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Yeah it seems like parking is a pretty big nightmare during the summer seasons in the coastal areas. We have a parking spot for Biarritz but not for San Sebastián will be talking to our Airbnb guy to hopefully arrange something.

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First time I went to SS, I had a car. My recollection is that the parking cost more than the Airbnb (back in dark ages of Airbnb, but still); and though we did use the car for a day trip to Bilbao, I’m not sure that was entirely necessary since there were other ways of getting there (e.g. bus). There was no reason I could see to have a car in SS (I know with little kids, it might be different), but something to consider. SS is accessible by train, plane and bus from various places. Train from Biarritz definitely doable…you switch to the local commuter train in Hendaye that takes you right into SS. There are taxis in SS, if you really need to get someplace you can’t walk to or find reasonable transportation. Just sayin’.

Lots of reasonable recs for SS and Paris on the boards, but maybe you are looking for something specific? If I were choosing a neighborhood to stay in with little kids (making this assumption based on “young family”), I think I might stay in Montparnasse. Nice parks, near train station for easy airport access, wonderful crèperies around. Just a thought, and not entirely sure why.

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Yes we have a 2 year old and thanks I’ll check out montparnasse!

We are going to go from Bilbao, to ss, and Biarritz plus the surrounding small towns around Biarritz and between SS and Biarritz also driving back to Bilbao, so I think with a 2 year old it’ll probably be necessary to drive which gives us a lot more convenience a flexibility. But thanks for the heads up that parking is expensive.

In terms of recs for Paris I’ve been perusing the board but just wanted to see if there was a consensus on some really can’t miss restaurants/boulangeries/brasseries/cafes etc of really any price. Since we are with a 2 year old we can only really do a couple of those spots realistically and the rest of the time will probably be revolving around her schedule.

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Considering renting places near:

  1. 2 blocks north of louvre/rivoli
  2. In between etienne marcel and reumar sebastopol in quartier pieton montorguiel
  3. South part of jardin de luxembourg near vavin station

Which one do you guys think would be best?

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Any and all. I’d go by the quality of the apartment/hotel.

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When we were there in 2017 there was no railroad service between San Sebastian and France. We had to take a bus to Biarritz and then a taxi to Bayonne. From Bayonne we could take the train to Paris.

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Not sure why that was…Always been able to get from France to SS in my experience. Here are the directions from Paris to SS, but trains definitely stop in Biarrits, from Seat61.com:

" * Step 1, take a TGV Duplex high-speed train from Paris Gare Montparnasse to Hendaye in just 4h36 - reduced from 5h45 by the opening of the new Tours-Bordeaux high-speed line in July 2017 - with fares from as little as €25.There are various departures every day, all with a cafe-bar, power sockets at all seats and (on most trains) free WiFi. Most TGVs on this route are now TGV Duplex double-deckers with the new Océane interior, see the photos below. I recommend an upstairs seat for the best views.Book your ticket at either www.raileurope.com (in €, £ or $, seat options given, small booking fee, more about Raileurope) or www.thetrainline.com (in €, £ or $, wide range of seating options, small booking fee, more about Trainline) or www.sncf-connect.com (French Railways own site, in €, a little more fiddly, but no booking fee). All sites give print-at-home, show-on-phone or collect-at-station tickets. Book ahead for the cheapest prices.

  • Step 2, walk out of Hendaye station exit and turn right for the little Euskotren metro station 100m away in the corner of the forecourt. Buy a ticket from the machines or staffed ticket office and go through the automatic gates onto the platform. The ticket machines have a touch screen with English language facility and they accept € coins and banknotes.Then hop on the next air-conditioned metro train from Hendaye to San Sebastian Amara, they leave every 30 minutes from early morning till late at night, journey time 37 minutes, fare just a couple of euros, no reservation necessary. There’s plenty of room for luggage and these excellent modern metro trains have a toilet & on-board information screens.There’s only one platform and all trains go to San Sebastian-Donostia. The station’s full name is San Sebastian-Donostia Amara, usually just shown as San Sebastian-Donostia but the station nameboards simply say Amara. And on ticket machines it could be listed under A, D or S! The final destination of the train is usually shown as Lasarte. You can check fares and times at www.euskotren.eus, though you hardly need to."
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I don’t remember exactly what the problem was, but we were told that if we didn’t take the bus, it would take us 9 hours to get to Biarritz.

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I took a rental car into the old city center of San Sebastian, in 2019. There is a good parking garage there which costs 25 euro a day. I loved having a car, for example to drive to Getaria. This was a 2 week trip from the Bordeaux area to SS, and back. But this was pre covid when renting a car in Europe was still affordable versus now.

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Perhaps you were just looking at the regular Renfe train service that takes you from/to the main Donostia train station rather than the commuter light rail that takes you to/from the Amara train station? (The Amara station is on the other side of the river. and a little farther south.)

Anyway, it seems like renting a car will be a better choice for this OP’s trip!

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Yeah we want to go to getaria, Asador extabarri, and do day trips out of Biarritz it’s the best option for us.

I was just checking car rental prices and they seem relatively reasonable 50-100 a daysish.

Thanks for the parking lot rec, I’ll reach out to my host to see which one is closest to the place we are staying .

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Yeah there’s 0 percent chance I’m taking public transport for trips over 10-15 min with a two year old unless it’s like Japan levels of public transport, timing and accessibility. So basically nowhere except for Japan lol.

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Sorry, late to the party. Just to add my 2 cents re Paris:

If you are using a stroller, taking the métro can be huge hassle because of all the stairs and risks of being targeted by pickpockets, and you will be much better off relying on buses. For this reason, I’d choose Vavin/ Montparnasse because it is so easy to get to the major tourist attractions in other parts of Paris by bus from here. The boulevard Montparnasse also has a few continuous-hours chain family restaurants (i.e. Chez Papa, Léon, Hippopotamus) in case the usual parisian eating time of 7:30 or 8 to 9:30 or 10pm is too late for you… not the best quality food, mostly assembly-line trad but good enough when you have a 2-year in tow. And, in my experience, certainly better than the equivalents in the USA.

Vavin/ Montpatnasse also has some excellent epicurean adult restaurants. Not sure of the welcome you’d get with a 2-year old though. We Parisians don’t take kids to such restaurants until much older and, in any case, few if any are set up to deal with young children. Except for the family chains, certainly no hi-chairs and sometimes hardly any room for a stroller in our typically very small and tightly packed restos.

Resto recommendations to follow depending on where you find a place to stay.

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Re Biarritz/ Pays Basque

In Biarritz, if you are planning for a day on the beach, get a schedule of tides. The Bay of Biscay is notorious and what seems like a fab sandy beach when the tide is low will become underwater at high tide. For this reason, there are few beach restaurants and private beaches so common on the much less changeable Med.

I for one like the Plage de Chambre d’Amour just north of the Phare (lighthouse) in the neighbouring town of Anglet (parking in mid-July will be a huge problem during the day but there is the #38 from the Mairie de Biarritz to the Chambre d’Amour stop in Anglet). Since the rent is cheaper than beachfront Biarritz, the restos on the promenade above the beach are better than the high-turnover lowest-common-denominator restos near the beaches in Biarritz. I especially like Lieu de Pêcheurs oyster/seafood restaurant… it’s also a great place for a sunset dinner but rezzies necessary to get a table on the terrace or rooftop (BTW, sunset in mid-July will be around 9:45pm). For 2yr olds, there is also a crêperie (Le Reef Anglet) just north on the same promenade as well as an excellent artisanal ice cream shop (Txomin). http://www.lelieuanglet.fr/ No websites (yet) for Le Reef Anglet and Txomin.

In Biarritz last year, I followed lefooding.com’s tip about Carøe fish resto on rue Gambetti and was very glad I did. The Scandi-Basque fusion fits Biarritz’s cosmopolitan flavour, the small-plates cuisine is delicious and, important for easily bored moi, unusual. But only open for dinner and reservations are essential. There were a few holidaying French families with younger kids at the outside tables but, since French kids usually eat what their parents eat from a very early age, nothing on the menu that most foreigners would consider suitable for very young kids. https://www.caroe.fr/

BTW, the lefooding.com is the hip French food bible. If you are looking for cutesy trad restaurants, this is not lefooding’s focus but is essential for the French food scene outside of the deeply rutted tourist trail. En tout cas, have a look. There is an English language tab at the bottom of the page. To use the search function, hit the restaurant tab and then fill in the city (exact French spelling) or the Paris arrondissement i.e. 75006 and verify on the pull down tab. https://lefooding.com/

Biarritz has a certain glamour left over from its legacy as the ritziest beach resort in Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries… somewhat incongruously it now also has a huge cluster of camping sites for budget-conscious Europeans. For a more folklorique and less rarified version of the Pays Basque, I’m a big fan of Saint-Jean-de-Luz/ Ciboure. As the 5th largest fishing port in France, it’s also a working town not totally dedicated to tourism and has a certain lived-in flavour. Even though I can be a bit of a beach bum and spend a lot of time on the Grande Plage (protected by sea walls and less tidal than Biarritz) , my favourite place is Les Halles/ covered food market + about 70 stands outside. Mornings only, great selection of local products, very convivial (at least in French), a great sample of the French and Basque food culture. If I’m still hungry after sampling stuff in the market, I usually have a late lunch on the terrace at Kako (trad Basque cuisine) just across from Les Halles or walk less than 150 metres to the far less folklorique and more trendy Komptoir des Amis. For an expensive special occasion meal, Michelin-starred Kaiku is excellent but expensive, very gastro and creative Basque-French cuisine, tasting menu format. https://www.saintjeandeluz.fr/fr/a-voir-a-faire/halles/ and http://www.restaurant-kako-saintjeandeluz.com/ and http://www.lekomptoirdesamis.com/ and https://www.kaiku.fr/

Whenever in the Pays Basque, I have a little ritual of driving 30-40 minutes into the interior to lunch-only Restaurant Urtxola near Sare on an old smugglers road to Zugarramurdi Spain. Parking lot in France, restaurant in Spain, very authentic and very trad Basque cuisine, lovely terrace, usually a very interesting clientele, delightful service. And the drive is very picturesque, past old Roman bridges and through impossibly pretty Basque villages and hamlets. “Basqueness” is mostly diluted by mass tourism along the coast of both France and Spain but, inland, it’s alive and well.

I’m an outlier on San Sebastian and consider it vastly overhyped. Especially in the last fortnight of July and most of August when it becomes slammed, uncomfortably so and almost theme-park-ish, with tourists. I much prefer it off-season. In the last fortnight of July, it’s not a matter of what are the best restos and tapas bars but of which have room for you. I should add that I have only been to San Sebastian once in high-season and my experience could have been just a matter of bad luck.

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