Bayonne - a day of Festivity

This morning we sadly left St Jean Pied de Port and the end of our walking programme. Our bags are again our responsibility, and we got the train down the mountain to Bayonne where we are staying for 6 nights in the same room!! We had only ever seen the train station at Bayonne, but today we emerged into the city itself and it is amazing! We found the hotel and left the bags as was too early for check in, and walked round. This is where the Nive river which flows through St Jean PdP, and the Adour river which we had seen in various cities upstream meet and flow together to the Atlantic- both now very big and wide.

Bayonne is Basque and it is just charming, with the Basque buildings and language - spellings and script are different, though French is the basic language that people speak. It does feel different and special, and they are very proud of their products - specially cheeses, chocolate and ham. And today was the culmination of the Foire au Jambon - a huge event celebrating ham. Amr was thrilled, and even I tolerated the masses as it was such an atmosphere - there was an area in a high marquee with all the local farms with their wares, and you could buy cones of jambon, choriso, and sandwiches - baguettes and cheese…and all sorts of other assorted products. We wandered in there, and picked at the food and were in heaven. We had walked along the line of restaurants beside the rivers on both sides which had laid out huge long tables which were empty when we walked by at 11 or so, and wondered why there were so many…well by afternoon the place was throbbing - all the tables we filled with crowds eating and drinking, bars everywhere, you could hardly walk along the streets - it was a perfect sunny and not too hot day and everyone was out having fun. Jazz bands playing, people singing and dancing. This is the first city, even more than Paris, where we have seen such joy and bustle!

Of course this was Sunday. Monday typically most shops are closed, and people will be back at work, so we will not expect quite the same atmosphere tomorrow, but just to see all that festivity was such fun. There is also quite a merge with the Spanish food and language here…to our delight we have found they do the chiperones we loved in Spain (call them xiperons).

Amongst all this we visited the wonderful cathedral - another UNESCO world heritage site and deserves to be so, wonderful and with a beautiful cloister. Tomorrow we plan to get a train (23minutes) to St Jean de Luz, a beach resort near here as it should be good weather.Read more