A Postcard from Yorgo Tloupas
- 26/09/2023
- Postcard
At Touriste we love receiving postcards, so we asked our favorite globetrotters to write to us…
We are happy to share this monthly pleasure with you !
From Bidart
A little about myself …
Yorgo Tloupas, perma-tanned Franco-Greek, logo designer and coffee hobbyist.
I am writing to you from …
I’m at the Itsas Mendia hotel in Bidart. A family-run establishment, run by Maider Etchayde, 4th generation since the founders of the place. Sometimes I have the anti-gregarious spirit of surfers who don’t give away their “secret spots”, but here I have to share this magical hotel, 1 minute from the town center fronton and town hall, 5 minutes walk from the beach along a nature trail, and with one of my favorite pools.
Plus there are TWO cats. I often come here for weekends during the year: when the wave forecasts are good, all I have to do is ride my folding Brompton bike, take the TGV with my Liberté card, and find my Nissan Cube parked in Biarritz all year round to go surfing on my Channel Islands, Surfin Estate and Album boards. I know I’ve just mentioned a lot of brands, but my job is to rethink their visual identities, so I’m sorry, that’s a bit brainwashed.
My Tourist moment …
Snob to the point that sometimes I get tired of it. In addition, my partner, the designer Camille Menard, tend to agree, so we’re a hellish duo, always looking for ways to do things differently. Alternating between nights under the stars on the deck of the ferry between Italy and Greece, organized down to the last nail in our “punks à chiens” camp, and staying in a Venetian palazzetto on the Grand Canal, unchanged for centuries (but I won’t give this one away, only clue: it is one of the few that does not belong to a major hotel group…).
My upcoming night at the hotel …
Uh… the Itsas Mendia hotel in Bidart, a family-run establishment with two cats…
The travel of my dreams …
In general, there’s surfing, skiing and, in between, winding mountain roads driven, of course, below the speed limit. This year, my partner and I did the Iceland tour, checking off all the boxes mentioned, with the added bonus of a poor seagull that hit and broke our windshield. May its soul rest in peace.
In my suitcase …
I have a The North Face duffel bag I bought in 1997 in San Francisco. I find it hard to understand their business plan, with such a low obsolescence rate! I also have a holy horror of wheeled suitcases, and I was delighted to learn that the city of Dubrovnik has banned them.
My favorite tourist song …
Lucio Battisti’s Anima Latina, a concept album that links all the tracks together as one. An unrivalled masterpiece. Perfect for the endless traffic jams between Ancona and Bologna on the A1.
First Travel Memory
Every year since I was born, my parents and I have travelled by car to Greece, passing through Italy and taking the ferry. I like my little habits, so four decades later, I’m happy to continue them.