Pays-Basque

When my family was here in late Sept, we spent four days in the Pays-Basque region. This area is in the south-west of France near the border of Spain. We stayed at a bed and breakfast nearby Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The place we stayed was lovely. It was a typical house of this area. However, I find the service mininal and the host was not as friendly as the ones in Dordogne.

We spent a day walking around Saint-Jean-de-Luz. In the picture below, the building on the right is the famous "Joanoenea" house. The future queen of Louis XIII, Anne d'Autriche stayed there before her wedding ceremony in 1660.

We also visited nearby cities like Biarritz and Bayonne.

On one of the mornings, everyone except me went up la Rhune by the little train. I was not feeling well that morning. Everyone loved the mountain top view. There were eagles soaring in the sky, sheeps gazing and the view of the sea and mountains surrounding was beautiful. That was the feedback I got. I do hope to have a chance to do it one day.

Since we were so near the border of Spain, we drove over to San Sebastian. There were many bars selling tapas. While waiting for lunch, we went into one of these bars. The waiter gave us a plate and we just filled it up with whatever we want. After that, we ordered our drinks and based on the contents in our plates, we paid before standing around and trying out what we picked. It was interesting and the atmosphere was relaxing.

We were blessed with good weather as it did not rain. We drove around the region and visited other villages and even a gorge. I tried to make my family try the local delights but on most evenings, we had chinese thanks to my GPS. It was able to suggest restuarants near where we were. Based on the name of the restaurant, we were able to second guess that it was an Asian restaurant. And it was always BINGO!