Day trip to St Jean de Luz

Today was fabulous! Another gorgeous day - cool to start, then quite warm, and sunny. I don’t know how long this can last, but we are making the most of it! We had heard this place was lovely, and only 23 minutes by train from Bayonne. So after breakfast we hopped on a train, and found such a beautiful town. It was bigger than we had imagined, though the historic centre, like most towns, is small. But it is a big beach - no surf - in a bay, not unlike San Sebastián, with a port behind where all the fishing boats are. You can stand and look west and you see the Atlantic, and you look east and see the Pyrénées - or where they come to join the sea. So beautiful. Maybe like a mini Nice, but without all the hype.

There is a promenade all along the waterfront and another thing that we found surprising was that on a Monday in the second half of October there were many people enjoying the day here. Local tourists, and also many people on the sand and even in the water! I think we are lucky to be there now, as I imagine that in summer it would be horribly crowded. But today it was perfect, plenty of people enjoying themselves, many bars and restaurants open, many shops with Basque products and of course the charming Basque architecture.

We had lunch, walked round the historic areas, sat and read kindles on a seat facing the water, and walked the full length of the bay and up to the headland. A lovely day. Now back and about to find something to eat!Read more