We rallied the crew together for a little trip across the pond to the magical land of France—for our first ever European Day Tripper. We’d heard rumors about this foreign land for years, but we wanted to check things out for ourselves and find out if their croissants worth the hype? (yes is the answer). We should note though, that what you’re about to see is by no means a professional guide for how to travel around France (in fact maybe the opposite in some cases haha)—it’s just a diary of sorts for how we like to travel the world. We definitely learned a thing or two about how to make the most of exploring this beautiful country, but we can safely say that without the guidance from our 2 French-speaking locals (Victoria Vergara and Adrien Toyon), we probably would have found ourselves in a few more sticky situations.

So, without further ado, this is how we travel—France edition.

Hossegor is one of the most iconic beach towns on coast of southwest France. It’s also home to a number of abandoned WWII bunkers, which we found to be a great spot to set up your tripod. After a solid morning surf make sure you get to the café before 1pm if you wanna eat—they are very protective of their afternoon “siestas” which is kinda inconvenient when you’re hungry, but also highly admirable?

We were completely blessed by the wave gods on this trip. Every day seemed to have swell which was ideal for our first European Bum Rush Tour. Our Airbnb was in the same carpark as La Graviere, one of the world’s best (and deceivingly powerful) beach breaks we’ve ever been to—which was pretty convenient. We checked the waves from our balcony, headed down the dune path, set up a couple umbrellas, and sounded the horn to start the contest. Too easy. Check the link to see the full Bum Rush go down.

It’s always nice when you get to travel with friends who actually know their way around. Our ambassadors were our local guides and graciously showed us all their favorite places to eat, surf, and hangout. They also threw out a bunch of cool historical tidbits like “oh yeah, Napoleon built that hotel and Coco Chanel lived in that chateau overlooking that wave over there.” We suddenly realized how old France really is.

Finders Keepers is our way of stoking out beach communities all over the world. But we think the French had a hard time wrapping their heads around this concept. Once we broke through the language barrier though, they seemed pretty stoked to walk away with free Sonny towels.

Word of advice, do your best to get to the train station a few minutes early. And if you find yourself traveling from Bordeaux to Paris, do yourself a favor and sit in a cabin on the left side of the train. The views of the countryside are killer, and you don’t have to feel the earth shake every time the bullet train goes by—making it a great time catch up on some sleep or listen to your favorite playlist—check out ours below.

Sometimes in life, it’s ok to embrace being a tourist. Turns out that sightseeing at the Louvre and picnicking in front of the Eiffel Tower were not as overrated as we thought. Don’t worry though, we still found time to ride our bikes through the side streets to go thrifting for some epic European flannels and to raid the local record stores.

Our batch of custom berets started out as sort of a gag gift (and quirky thank you to the crew and our ambassadors) but quickly became a wardrobe staple throughout the trip. Don’t think Kobe ever took his off the entire trip now that we think of it.

All in all, our trip was one for the books. We saw a lot, ate a lot, and surfed a lot. We were also reminded that when you’re traveling as a fish out of water in foreign territory you really just have to go with the flow. It’s a lot more fun that way.

Until next time.