Biarritz October 2010

By Erik Foxcroft

This October Sally and I went to Biarritz to take what may be the last opportunity we would get to work with Professor Zhang in Europe.

We flew into Biarritz from Stansted and were met at the airport by Mark Atkinson, who had driven down from his home further up the West coast of France the day before. Mark was looking well and drove us down to our hotel where we had just enough time to find our room and get changed before we were off to the first session.

The Halle Sportive is in the St Charles area of Biarritz, which is a pleasant suburb about 25 minutes walk from the centre of town. We met our hosts of l'Association Kunming and the newly formed Ecole Française de MaÎtre Zhang Guangde, and introduced ourselves to Astrid, the President, whom we had been communicating with since we started organising the visit. We greeted Professor Zhang and met his nephew Zhang Jian for the first time. Professor Zhang seemed very well and happy and remembered us from when we had worked with him in the USA and Glasgow.

Over the next seven days we studied the Concentration Exercise, the new 12 Movement form and the second Daoyin Baojian Gong set. We also revised the Daoyin Poem with Zhang Jian ready for a group demonstration at the weekend. Professor Zhang's comments were translated by Mme Xiaoguang Chapellier-Yao, whose French was very clear, so even I could follow a lot of what was said, and Mark then translated the rest for us. Several more English speakers arrived for later courses but there were enough people who's English was good enough that Mark was not too crowded.

As well as another English man and one from Scotland who now lives in France, there were people from Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Australia via Italy. There were also people from several other parts of France. All the locals were very friendly and hospitable and were ready to offer lifts to and from the hall and advice on the local restaurants and attractions.

Biarritz itself is a good place for a holiday, even at the end of October. The weather was mostly warm and sunny and when it did rain it was not too cold. The beach is not far from the town centre and there are lots of interesting places to visit and to eat. Even we two vegetarians found it easy to get good food there. At the Pois Chic, a tiny restaurant and juice bar two minutes walk from our hotel, we had some lovely baked potatoes and juices all served by a woman from Oxford who had moved out there. There are miles of beaches North and South of the town centre, the beaches where the sport of surfing was born in Europe. Although there was a surfing competition on the first day we wandered down there it was a little tame as the weather was so good there was hardly enough surf for the contestants to stand up before it was over. The beaches, cliffs and promontaries were interesting though.

When walking up the road to get a lift to the hall we also discovered the Musée Asiatica, one of the top five museums of Asian art in the world. We went there a couple of times to see everything. Although it is not large it has a lot of exhibits from tiny beads to whole temple doorways. They also had an oversize brass hand from Tibet in the Daoyin hand shape. Well worth a visit.

Thanks to the help and encouragement of our friend Lin Lin Choy, Sally and I had sent off videos of ourselves to China, before our trip, so that we could be assessed for the 4^th Duan in Daoyin Yangsheng Gong, for which Dick Watson kindly gave us references. This meant that Professor Zhang was able to present us with our certificates whilst we were in Biarritz. A little later that day someone asked to borrow Sally's certificate, we thought they just wanted to show it to someone else but, after some discussion with Professor Zhang they called for everyone's attention and announced that people would be able to obtain such certificates in Biarritz. We are not sure if they meant that anyone attending courses there would be able to apply for a Duan or if it was going to be an equivalent certificate: we will let you know as soon as we know ourselves. We did get attendance certificates signed by Professor Zhang, Astrid and Zhang Jian. People who attended all the sessions during the fortnight got copies of the relevant books and videos of the forms included in the price (otherwise you could buy them for your individual course).

We had a great week in Biarritz and would recommend it to anyone who is interested. There is a programme for April 2011 including Taiji Zhang, Taiji Jin, first heart form, theory and more. If you just want to train or if you would like a little holiday as well look at their website nearer the time and get in touch with the Association, they are very helpful. Because of French law you will have to join the association, which adds €60 to the cost but it is still well worth a visit.

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