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← The tide was super low this morning, so of course I went beachcombing! After searching from Plage du Miramar to Port des Pêcheurs, I ended my search in the tide pools on the south end of Grande Plage. When I least expected it, I looked down and saw a gun in a holster sitting under the water. I was shocked and not sure what to do, so I text Brent & my friend Elisa and they both said to tell the police. Then 3 guys walked over and asked me what I was looking for. Wanting some advice on the situation I pointed to the gun and did my best attempt in French to explain what I had found. They didn’t hesitate, pulled the gun out of the water and started examining it – it was super old, very rusty and not it working condition & they were going to throw it back into the water & they said I should keep it with the rest of my finds (I was holding a bag full of other beachcombing finds). I said I was scared… (my French vocabulary totally failed me in this gun-finding situation, by the way, they didn’t understand anything I said). They just laughed and walked off, tossing me a cell phone they found in the water as they walked away. So there sat this gun, the guys I had shared my discovery with not interested and not thinking this was a problem. I was secretly hoping they would say “we’ll take this to the police so you don’t have to touch it, and we’ll explain to the police in perfect French what happened.” I still wasn’t sure what to do, but my friend Erin’s boys love to play in these tide pools ALL the time, especially on ultra low tide days like this, and I just imagined a kid stumbling onto it, so I didn’t want to leave it. I carefully picked it up, put it in my bag of other beach finds, and walked it to the police station, where I did my best to tell them that I was an avid beachcomber who just found a gun on the Grande Plage. They took the gun, along with the rest of my finds (nooo, so sad), and said merci & they will call me. I was so scared talking to the cops, especially having to tell them this story in French, but hopefully I did the right thing. Maybe if I was on a beach in the US this discovery might seem more normal, but here in Biarritz it was very unexpected!
