Bayonne, Pays Basque

The peace around Maison Cabanne, Andrea and Kevin's place just out of Orthez, is disturbed only by the sound of rural enterprise: a cow bellowing on the way to milking in the morning, a shot ringing out from the rifle of a deer hunter, or a tractor driving past towing a load of corn. As I type now, I can hear a few birds, a gentle shower on the tiled roof, and the distant tinkling of a cow bell. It is a wonderful place and the house is on the market - it can be viewed online at www.centry21france.fr - Century 21, Orthez.

While we were having breakfast at home today, we were paid a visit by Mr. Lafleur, and Artisan Peintre who was trying to use up a small quality of left-over chemicals used for cleaning the moss of roof tiles. We left him to finish the job, and we drove down the peage to Bayonne in the Basque country.

This charming city on the river Nive is also home to a branch of Christian Louis' Parfums et Senteurs du Pays Basque. His fragrances are made from ingredients as diverse as leather, tobacco, tangerine and black pepper. The result is very special.

I tasted for the first time today the much-prized cêpes mushrooms which have a short season this time of year - very flavoursome, and worked well in the omlette I had at lunch.

Looking around the narrow streets at some promising place for lunch, we spotted this little red scooter riden by a young man and his girlfriend a pillion passenger - we watched to see if this particularly European sight would take on a more definite French flavour as they pulled up in front of the boulangerie. He emerged from the shop having snapped the baguette in two, but we enjoyed the show as they headed the wrong direction across a one-way bridge over the Nive, waving the baguette at the oncoming protesting motorists!

After lunch we wandered around looking at beautiful shops, many of them selling products unique to this region. Our umbrellas got a workout, the heavy shower of rain even bouncing on the swiftly-flowing river. The main city area with many narrow streets is serviced by a free bus service and the little electric buses (Les Navettes) make hardly any noise.

The Bayonne Cathedral (Notre-Dame) which stands atop a hill looking over the Adour and Nive rivers was the heart of the old city. The ancient structures gone, the buidling of the present cathedral started in the 13th century and is essentially a gothic buidling. Today it houses an organ built in 1865 which looks like it would be perfect for the music or Bach and Buxtehude which David has been playing. The cloisters are impressive, although most of the tombs and statues have some damage and are gradually being restored.


The French poet Péguy described this cathedral as a place of pilgrimage in these lines:

O Queen; here is, after a long journey,
And before taking the same road back again,
The only refuge open in the hollow of your hand,
And the secret garden where one's soul can bloom.

This could also aply to this whole visit to the sud-ouest!