August 23 -- early afternoon in Bayonne

.

After lunch, we attempted to visit the cathedral, but it was closed (for lunch? I can't remember....).

It is large.





Note that top of pointy arch, below, is visible, bottom right above, and then notice size of persons underneath.....





Looking down the side.





Hundreds of years of weathering are hard on just about everything. Work on repairs/restorations is ubiquitous.





Cloisters. The covered walkway just visible upper right goes around three sides of a large open lawn (easily visible from http://maps.google.com satellite view).





Here's something else that is ubiquitous............





Boggled at the work and technology required to build such large and complex structures, without electricity, without fossil fuels, without computers...........







Ok. Moving right along. There's something intrinsically cheerful about these fluttering banners, don't you think?

Bayonne is clearly a town that does a lot of tourist business, but it is also clear that a lot of people really live right here. In one shop, we tasted some (really REALLY good) sausage, and then made a purchase. While the shopkeeper helped us, one of his friends wandered in. They shared a greeting, then more tourists came in, and the friend began to cut and offer slices of that sausage to the new-comers, lending a hand until the merchant had finished with us.....

Bayonne felt like a very homey and friendly place.





Excellent things catch the eye.





This mosaic floor was in the entry to a shop.





The stripes are the official Basque flag, and the curls are, we believe, stylized four-leaf clovers for luck.





Elderly structures, inhabited now (if the tv antennae are any indication).





Lichens on what used to be part of the town wall.







Google let me down!

I am pretty sure this means "Basque spoken." But Google didn't recognize "Euskalerriko". It offered "Euskal Herriko," which makes me wonder if this might be slang or local dialect....





According to Wikipedia, "Kukuxumusu ("The Drawing Factory/Marrazki Fabrika/La Fábrica de Dibujos/La Fabrique de Dessins/La Fàbrica de Dibuixos") is a company from Pamplona, Navarra, Spain specialising in clothing and product design. Its name means flea's kiss in Basque."

There seem to be a lot of Ks and Xs in Basque. All those Xs make one think of Aztec, and both peoples are known for chocolate............ Hmmmm........





Light on the pavers, colored by the red and green plastic pennants above.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

.