S is for Summer Lovin'

Happened so fast

Time has gone very quickly yet very slowly. I am racing towards the end of my time in the Basque country and, although it feels like I’ve lived here for six years, I cannot believe I will be leaving in six days. I cannot start to disconnect from the last few months quite yet but as the season comes to a steady halt, the premature nostalgia is crashing into the shore.

The tourists have left Biarritz, and so has the summer weather, days of prolonged thunderstorms have replaced the patchwork sunshine to which we had become accustomed. The cooler front is settling in and it shocks me each year how quickly the nights get darker and the autumnal air fills my lungs and how, also, we can forget how cold a cold snap feels. The reflex of reaching for a jumper before leaving the house somehow has to be relearnt each autumn as if the sun melts away any memory of frigidity, of frost.

That being said, I love this time of year, la rentrée, or back-to-school-season (less cool), for its freshness. It’s a clean white shirt, a new pencil case, an empty notebook ready to be filled. The memories of hazy summers packed away, ready to be thawed out again in Spring. I am taking a cheat’s approach this year and extending my summer by two months, heading East for sunshine and spices, meaning that when I get back Winter will be inescapable, so these last days of autumn must be relished.

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Re-reading my pre-parting words above written a week ago whilst currently stuck on a 6+ hour journey back to Paris, allowing me ample time to reflect. A short cry, a short nap, a scroll through my photographs and notes from the past four months. A seasonal job is much like a seasonal ingredient. It must be relished in its fast, fleeting presence. The sweet nectar of tomatoes, perfect during their harvest, quickly lose their appeal as the sun loses its strength. It’s over before you know it, leaving the taste of sunshine freshly on your tongue. But with the changing of seasons, the calling in of new products, the fleshy beginnings of squash start appearing, the arrival of mushrooms and the colours of our plates deepening, we’ll start to remember the beauty of winter.

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A Pays-Basque debrief

Biarritz is the entry point for many into the Basque country and I don’t think that it should be. It is accessible yes, but representative, not at all. The Pays-Basque is rich in so much diversity, from culture, to food, nature, and the people that inhabit this little bordering pocket of France and Spain. To visit Biarritz is not to visit the Basque region at all, an area so desperate to be explored. I feel like I have hardly scratched the surface and will be trying to learn more and discover more in years and decades to come. A little part of the Basque country will remain fixed within me, and most likely on my plate for the food here is something to be marvelled at. It’s the years of traditions burnt into grills, the salt of the sea that seasons the local produce, and the pride of families around the table. not French, not Spanish, but Basque families.

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Over the next two months, I’ll be discovering how Autumn feels in India, after this summer of activity, I’ll be operating at a different rhythm. I’ll therefore be pausing paid subscriptions of Alphabet Soup and returning with so much to say in November.