FRIDAY 1ST JUNE 2012

Today was a particularly good day to go to St jean de Luz because we had passed it twice on the San Sebastian trip and because Louis XIV had his pre marriage house then in the 16th Century. A fast 10 minute 3.5Euro trip on the superb TGV and we were soon alighting and winding our way through the lovely town streets to Les Halles. They were still operating but in the process of packing up for the day. We walked to the sea front and instantly fell in love with the place with its enclosed bay, thanks to Napeleon III who converted it from a swamp to a beautiful protected environment. There were restaurants everywhere, full of people having seafood lunches and houses immediately behind the massive sea walls and beach areas. The town also has a protected harbour for the fishing and sailing fleets that operate out of the place.

We visited the Church of St Jean the Baptiste and it was by far the most decorated altar we have seen on this holiday to the point of being breath-taking. A funeral had been held there earlier and the visitors had respectfully stayed away until the finish and departure. We had lunch at a small restaurant in the central area and then headed for Loius' house. Caroline had a guided tour while Guy cruised the outside taking free photos of the square and the boats. After buying a couple of cards and a Victorinox army knife as memoirs we headed back to the Gare and caught the 5:30 back to paradise.

The first thing we thought of was a swim and then a baguette dinner to finish off the ham and the stinky Norman brie. Delicious!. The water was cold but refreshing and we just sat on the beach watching the amazing sunset and cloud formations. Packing was a sad affair but we are lucky that other stuff is on its way to Australie otherwise big trouble in the space department.

We said au revoir to Biarritz with this stunning sunset.

SATURDAY 2ND JUNE

Up bright and early in the humidity of the day before the alarm at 7 and we quickly gave the apartment another quick clean and polish to ensure that we got our 'caution' returned to us. Breakfast partly consumed we headed for Les Halles where our Artisan Boulangerie awaited with fresh croissant du buerre and some fizzy water from Carrefor's supermarket. Now we were ready for the hot drinks at the Milwaukee Cafe. We got chatting to the American women there to discover that they had been at Les Halles since October last year. The mother had married a man from Biarrtiz 30 years ago and the daughter had recently arrived from a two year stint in Australia. Unprompted she said that Melbourne was her favourite city in the whole world. It goes to show that when a girl from Milwaukee USA thinks our city is fantastic then we have got it pretty good. 

Next stop was the little church next to the market where we spent some time. Back to the appartment where Nathalie soon arrived and she was as pleased as punch that everything was as clean as when we arrived even to the point of discovering lemons in the fridge to remove the odour of the Normandy brie. She drove us all the way to Bayonne gare and a couple of chocolatines and some fruit later our train sped off toward Lourdes.

We have arrived. Hot and muggy when we left and the same here at the feet of the Pyranees. We spotted snow covered mountains in the distance from the train. It was a nice journey, surrounded by Basque French and pure French people. They were all about kidding about the food and each other and even the conductress got into the act. In typical fashion the people next to us brought out their knives to cut up their baguettes and sausages.

Guy had put his Victorinox away in the suitcase otherwise he would have cut himslef a piece of dried Toulouse straight away. We had a great chat in French to one woman who joined us in Pau. Heading straight towards the mountains with babbling river alongside the train track. Just beautiful. It was a quick exit at the station and we were at our destination. We had lunch at Le Navarre (Spanish influence?) which was really nice, finally Caroline had a french onion soup and Guy his Casoullet Toulouse. There were many shops in the street leading to the Basillica of the Immaculate Conception and all of its associated churches both above and below the grounds. Words and photos are unable to describe the artistic and religious significance of this place and the sense of peace opitamised by the beautiful flowing river of clean cold water from the melting ice of the Pyrennes above us. Thousands of people are here on pilgrimage particularly the sick who are seeking spiritual comfort. We visited the book store where we found some literature on St Bernadette. After 6pm we headed back up the hill, stopping for a quick pasta before have a much needed two hour sleep. It has been a long but elevating day.