This morning I got up early and was at the train station at 8:50am. I met Pablo there and we took the train to Bayonne (only about 20 mins), where we met up with Alison! Since we were planning to visit the Basque Museum, we headed that direction, but it didn’t open until 10:30am on Saturdays. So, we spent about an hour and a half wandering around the market and then through the town.
Photo: The river in Bayonne
I bought Harry Potter #4 (in French) at the market for only €3 from a used book seller! We visited the cathedral (again) and listened to a man playing beautiful piano music in the street. I really like the old part of Bayonne—the streets are really narrow and the buildings have so much character!
When it opened, we headed to the Basque Museum. The Basque Country is an area in the south-west of France and north-west of Spain that has it’s own language, traditions, and culture. They are very proud of their region and its uniqueness.
Photos: Basque region and flag
The museum was really interesting—and big! There were paintings, videos, and exhibits that all showed some aspect of Basque culture.
Photo: An old wine press
Photo: A painting of a game of pelote
We spent about 1 1/2 hours in the museum, before finding some lunch. It wasn’t a particularly exciting place, but it was inexpensive and I got a slice of pizza, Pablo got a massive baguette sandwich, and Alison had a Caesar salad.
Of course, after lunch, Alison and I stopped to get a dessert at the pâtisserie down the street! I had a lemon tart (what Alison got last time) and she had a raspberry square. We exchanged bites, of course. It’s always so hard to choose—everything looks so amazing!!
Photo: My lemon tart
After lunch, we took the bus to Biarritz. It’s only 15-20 minutes away and it’s on the coast. There is a beautiful beach, plenty of lovely buildings (at the beach front), a lighthouse, and many rocky outlooks. We spent hours walking along the little path on the coast.
Photo: View from a rock out in the ocean!
There are two huge rocks out in the ocean that are connected to the coast by bridges—very cool! It’s great because being out on the rocks gives you a totally different view of the coast.
Photo: Out on one of the rocks
Photo: Those mountains are in Spain.
We watched the huge waves splashing up on the rocks and spent some time just sitting in the sun, looking at the view. I had fun climbing way out on the rocks—making Pablo extremely nervous. He is afraid of heights (apparently even when it’s other people who are leaning over the edge…) When it started to get cloudy, we headed back towards the bus station (stopping to pick up some postcards).
Once we made it back to Bayonne, we still had 1 hour and 45 minutes before our train to Tyrosse. It’s a bit annoying that on Saturday there is a train at around 1:30pm and one at 6:10pm, but none in between! Since we had some time to kill, we visited an Irish shop! Aaaand, they had lemon curd!!! Yay! No clotted cream, but I was very happy to buy a jar of curd! Alison got some as well. I don’t think Pablo was very interested…
We then visited the cloister (which Pablo had never seen) and walked around the same part of town for a little while longer. Alison took the bus back to Capbreton (where she lives) at 5:15pm, but Pablo and I still had to wait for almost an hour.
We walked really slowly towards the train station, enjoying the beautiful view as we walked across the bridge. We stopped at a small movie theater and read movie reviews. Then we sat on a bridge along the river and watched the sun go down and the lights on the bridge come on (very beautiful!!).
Photo: Dusk in Bayonne
Eventually we wandered slowly to the train station and I got my ticket. And we waited a little more… and finally our train came! It seems like there’s always one extra hour, which is hard when you’re tired from walking all day!
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