La Mer, le Canal & les Pyrénées

[Jacques Vert]

Hendaye

Heading around 15 minutes to the south from St-Jean you come to Hendaye, which is situated immediately to the north of the border with Spain; another pretty beachside town. Looking along the main beach with Spain in the distance...

 

[Jacques Vert]

The Sun King (Louis XIV)

Again from Wikepedia:

In 1659, Cardinal Mazarin spent several months in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, from where he would embark on almost daily trips to Pheasant Island in the river Bidassoa (near modern-day Hendaye) for Franco-Spanish meetings that resulted in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, one clause of which was the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa, the Infanta of Spain. Saint-Jean-de-Luz and its church were chosen to host the royal wedding on 9 June 1660. The marriage is one of the most important political marriages in history that brought an end to a bitter war. Today, visitors of the cathedral can see that the main door is bricked off. Two legends circulate this oddity: First, it has been said that the door the couple passed through was later closed to represent the closing of the troubles between France and Spain. A more popular theory among the locals is that the king, Louis XIV, ordered the door to be closed off, so no other couple could walk into the church to be married in his footsteps.

BTW, an 'infanta' is the daughter of the ruling monarch in Spain or Portugal, especially an eldest daughter who was not the heir to the throne. In Spain, only the heir to the throne is a prince or princess.

Louis XIV stayed in this house for a number of months during the signing of the Treaty and the wedding celebrations:








The infanta, Maria Teresa, stayed this house about 100m away for a few days before the wedding:




And the church where the wedding took place. As in Ainhoa, it is interesting that there are wooden galleries all around the inside of the church; something I haven't seen anywhere except in the Basque country.




And the main door that was closed off after the wedding:

 

[FlyingFiona]

I have seen churches with one tribune, but never multiple (and wooden) such as in these Basque churches you've shared. It's been great to see them, thank you.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Bordeaux

From Saint-Jean-de-Luz we drove north to Bordeaux where we are due to hand our car back. I've been sitting on a few Hilton Honors points since before the pandemic but it's become difficult to get decent value since Hilton moved to dynamic pricing. I decided to bite the bullet and booked the Hilton Garden Inn for five nights; not great value but good enough. It's pretty typical of a Garden Inn...




The view from our room:






From the Garden Inn it's a 15 minute walk to the nearest tram station from where it's three stops to the centre of town (EUR1.90 per trip but you can get 24, 48 and 72 hour passes)...

 

[FlyingFiona]

I'm shocked how busy Bordeaux is! Mind you, I haven't been there for (a-hem) 25 years. The whole world is significantly busier than 25 years ago.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm shocked how busy Bordeaux is! Mind you, I haven't been there for (a-hem) 25 years. The whole world is significantly busier than 25 years ago.

I was surprised too. Most of SW France seems to have shut down once November rolled around but Bordeaux is very busy. Could have something to do with Christmas markets starting up or maybe something else but it is certainly very busy. Hate to think what it is like in peak season if this is their quiet time!

Seems to be quite a lot of Spaniards in town.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm shocked how busy Bordeaux is! Mind you, I haven't been there for (a-hem) 25 years. The whole world is significantly busier than 25 years ago.

Some more examples of how busy it is in Bordeaux (and this is December)






And lots of restaurants have queues to get in...






especially the following one that only serves one dish: steak with chips and salad. No bookings accepted; you just have to join the queue. Every time we walked past the queue was down the street and around the corner...







Must be bloody good chips!

 

[Jacques Vert]

La Dune du Pilat

Sixty kilometres southwest of Bordeaux is Europe's tallest sand dune. At around 110m it isn't as high as Dune 45 in Namibia (170m) that I climbed in 2017 but this one seemed quite a bit steeper (or maybe I'm just 7 years older)...










Great views from the top:

 

[FlyingFiona]

Must be bloody good chips!

I think it's more "sa fameuse sauce"! (Their chips DO look good though. Infrequent finding in France in my experience.)

 

[ellen10]

I'm shocked how busy Bordeaux is! Mind you, I haven't been there for (a-hem) 25 years. The whole world is significantly busier than 25 years ago.

I too am shocked at how busy Bordeaux is. We were there in May and I thought it was busy then. But much more busy now.

We also saw the queues for the steak restaurant and lots of Asian tourists lined up. Must be rated high on Trip Advisor.

If you are still in Bordeaux opposite the steak is a great wine bar called Bar Vin . Locate din a beautiful old building and serves lots ot local wines by the glass at very reasonable prices. We visited every afternoon. And also near there is a 5 story wine shop with a spiral stairway leading to the top.

We also loved the big daily marche.

 

[Jacques Vert]

One of the challenges of writing a TR is having sufficient internet quality to be able to upload photos.

Hopefully back soon.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Arcachon

A few kilometres north of the Dune du Pilat is another pleasant seaside town: Arcachon. After climbing the dune we took a stroll around town before heading back to Bordeaux...






As it was a Sunday and the sun was shining, there were quite a few people out and about:

 

[Jacques Vert]

No visit to Bordeaux would be complete without a winery tour:




We paid for a one hour tour of the estate with a tasting of two Grand Cru wines. We started by looking at the Chateau; that's our guide making a cameo appearance...






Then inside where the magic happens...




Cost was EUR18. Our guide was excellent, really knew her stuff and we learned quite a bit. Only downside was that the tastings were very small and the price of a bottle was the complete opposite. I liked their white (semillon/sauvignon blend), really nice and I also liked the red although it was a little on the young side for +1. I agreed that it would benefit from a few more years but by then it would be even further beyond my price point!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Christmas Markets

After our visit to the winery we headed to the Christmas markets:

 

[Jacques Vert]

One thing that did surprise me about the markets was the number of food stalls...
















Hot Rum: Now there's an idea for next winter!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Santons

Of course it wouldn't be Christmas in France without Santons. Santons are small figurines used to make nativity scenes in people's homes:

Santon (figurine) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RooFlyer]

Then inside where the magic happens...

All that stainless steel! Quelle horreur!

Hot Rum: Now there's an idea for next winter!

I tried some at the Strasbourg market. After the pretty weak gluhwein I’d had everywhere, it damn near blew my shoes off.

 

[drron]

Hot rum and lemon juice was my grandfathers cure for a cold. Loved it. Even though it probably didn't work you did feel much better after a large glass.

 

[Jacques Vert]

More Submarines

Bordeaux was one of the five ports in western France where the German navy built submarine pens. However, in Bordeaux, the base was originally home to 30 Italian submarines which had joined the battle of the atlantic. Towards the end of the war, the Italian submarines returned to the Mediterranean and the base was taken over by a German U-boat flotilla.

It is interesting that Bordeaux is almost 100 km from the Atlantic by boat and as well as that, the submarines had to pass through a lock to enter the U-boat base; probably not the most logical place to build a submarine base.

We didn't set out to make this trip a tour of former submarine bases but while we were in Bordeaux we did visit as nearly a third of the former base has been converted to a cultural centre for performing arts, exhibitions and the like.

While we were there, there was a light show "Bassins des Lumières" which featured various exhibitions using projected light including "From Vermeer to Van Gogh, the Dutch masters" and "Mondrian, the architect of colours". It is a very interesting exhibit and the reflections in the water of the submarine pens gave an added dimension...

 

[Jacques Vert]

La Garonne

We decided to take a cruise on the river at Bordeaux: La Garonne. The price included a canelé and a glass of wine. I can't say that I am a fan of the canelés; a bit too stodgy for my taste but the wine was fine.

La Garonne is not a particularly beautiful river as it passes through Bordeaux but it was an interesting cruise nonetheless. Our boat:




The original bridge; still in use:








This one is a vertical-lift bridge: the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas. At 575m long and 77m high it is both the longest and highest vertical-lift bridge in Europe.




Around 20-odd years ago there were, from memory, 17 decaying warehouses along the waterfront in Bordeaux. Seven of these have been restored and now house restaurants, bars and the like, with car parking on the rooves. The other 10 were demolished to reunite Bordeaux with its river. From what we saw it has been a very successful project.