Sauveterre-de-Béarn

Last night at our beautiful chambres d’hôtes we of course had a great dinner - just us - other guests weren’t there to eat…we had fresh trout from the river, vegetables, rice with a delicate ginger, lemon sauce…just delicious, then cheese, and one of the best crème brûlée I’ve ever had!

So this morning our same friendly taxi driver picked us up (and bags) and dropped us about 5 kms into today’s walk, making it a total of 17 kms walking distance. I think 22 kms would have been quite manageable, but it was probably arranged as today we walked up and down most of the day, with just a few flat stretches. And it was gorgeous! Started in fog again, but it burnt off quicker today, and we didn’t miss too much we hope. But we certainly had some spectacular panoramas as we approach the Pyrénées - now definable in the distance, and hilly countryside with corn and blond cows. Sometimes we were walking in tunnels of hedges and trees and couldn’t see out, and then would emerge to amazing sights.

Sauveterre is a beautiful, historic and well preserved town. We saw it looming as we approached, and then had to walk up many many steps to get up there! And our chambres here is right above the river, by the Pont de Légende. We have a large airy room with a balcony looking over it all. Amazing. But the amazing thing was that it is run by an Aussie! We thought it would be an English speaking person as the name was Melville…he bought the place earlier in the year…had been moving here anyway (escaped from Australia in November) because he had business here, and in the end was persuaded to buy and run this BandB! He had been producing reality TV shows and making documentaries but that was all drying up and he changed paths…very laid back, and fun talking to an Aussie. His daughter is here too, working for a Canadian company from France…?

So we are relaxing in our room, and have vouchers for dinner at a restaurant La Légende (not attached to here, up near the church) which sounds excellent.

We only have 2 days of walking left, and are feeling rather sad that this life is almost over. The next 2 days are extremely exciting for us though, as we will meet up with the path that we walked before from Le Puy 6 years ago. And we know the scenery is stunning. We will be going through St Palais where we stayed last time, but this time we walk through, but hope we may stop for a coffee if it is the magic time when bars are open! From where the paths meet, the same route takes us on to St Jean Pied de Port. Though we are not yet in the Pays Basque we are noticing dual signs in place names sometimes (maybe there is a Béarn dialect) and the atmosphere in this corner of the country changes. A very special part!Read more