Ko iiSince Irun is a border town it did not take much pedaling to reach France. We always like to see the abandoned border stations, since borders have been associated with so much grief in the past.
There is still a police car hanging out by the station.
and there were these Mallards. As French ducks, they will say "coin coin" and not the "cuac cuac" they use when they cross the river to the Spanish side.
Once we were well and truly into France, we could see quite a difference in the building style here. Balconies are more often wood, and exteriors are decorated with "fachwerk" style wood.
We came down from the cliffs and were at the approaches of St Jean de Luz. This place made a good impression on me last time, enough that I went onto a real estate office to see what was on offer. Any time we daydream about moving to France, I mention St. Jean. Dodie favours Strasbourg.
Of course the first thing to do in the first French town is to check out the first bakery. This one had some nice tartelettes. I went for the abricot, with the creme amandes!
I went and told the bakers that we have been marooned in Spain and Portugal and that this was our first boulangerie after crossing the border. They happily posed for the photo, knowing that they are celebrities (to me).
Just on the outskirts of town, St Jean had a small but good market, with not one but two rotisseries. The photo makes it look very crowded, but we had no trouble walking our bikes in.
The lady one the right came and spoke to us while we were eating our chicken on a bench. She is from Mirepoix, near Toulouse, but is out visiting her daughter (left) who produces honey nearby here. The daughter later gave us a gift of mandarin oranges. Such nice people. They were not the only ones today that stopped for extensive UQs.
St Jean de Luz is a beautiful little town, with walking streets and lovely Basque style buildings. Lots of people were out enjoying the place this Easter Sunday. See the shots below:
We arrived at a hamlet with the church visible in the photo below. It's unremarkable, except that when we passed here last, a large procession had exited the church and was making its way to some neighbouring church. I remember it specifically because of the particular incense they were using in their botafumeiro as they walked.
We were doing fine and really enjoying the ride, but about mid way through the temperature dropped and rain began. We had to put on the serious rain gear, and we started to lose feeling in our fingers.
We approached the famous Biarritz, and not remembering the place (or if we had ever been there) we tried to get a sense of it, without leaving the track, or for that matter, stopping.
From Biarritz, we hunkered down, concentrating on not freezing, as we covered the rather nondescript distance to Bayonne. The track ran beside the harbour inlet, and was good - with marked bike lanes.
In Bayonne, we had phoned the night before and booked into the Hotel des Arceaux. We did this despite really bad reviews on Booking, but we found the man on the phone to be perfectly polite, plus able to understand us.
The hotel is a super narrow 17th century building, wedged in, on a narrow main street leading to the cathedral. We are on the walk up third floor, not bad, because there are five floors in total. As to the quality of the place, it's tricky. Objectively, it has wildly not level floors, low quality flooring and walls, tiny bathroom, rickety bed, and so on. This compares to the amazing high quality hotel rooms we had at all price levels in Spain and Portugal, with tile everywhere, amazing plumbing, good windows, and so forth. But this rickety old place is what we have come to expect for France. Not to mention the croissant, orange juice, coffee breakfast offered for 8.50 euros.
Scott FenwickWe stayed here in early October 2023. Not a flashy hotel but it worked. I think we even had the same room. The bike storage was a bit tight from what I recall and our weather was a little nicer too. But you and Dodie just seem to keep motoring along. It is fun to ride in France! Reply to this comment 1 month ago
We returned to the hotel, remarking on just how wet, chilled, and tired we felt. We fixed that partly for me, with a hot bath in the tiny bathtub. I am starting to learn how to get in and out of these things, but after being lulled in the warm water for a time, it requires a big effort of mind and body to get out.
Despite the rain and cold for the second half of the day, the Basque country provided us with a really beautiful and fun ride. Now of course, we will try to recover quickly, for an early start and fun repeat, in another riding day tomorrow.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles) Total: 2,439 km (1,515 miles)
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Carolyn van HoeveHi Steve & Dodie! Enjoying following you along this trip! And you're heading to Boubiers and Ian's place? Are you planning to store your bikes there? He's a lovely man and we've kept in constant contact since we dropped our bikes off there last October. You'll be able to say hello to them for us. Can't wait to get back to them in September when we're planning a traverse across the Spanish Pyrenees following in the footsteps of TA / Kyle & Kirsten. Reply to this comment 1 month ago
