Here is our first look at the Nive, which cuts through old Bayonne, and joins the Adour just west of the big bridge by our hotel.
In the window of a shop. I was taken by the woman's expression.
See, people really do live here. Look at all the laundry (and all the racks ready to hold more laundry). As a sister laundry-hanger-out-er, I felt right at home.
These narrow streets keep the sun out, when the orientation is helpful. It was much cooler in here than out by the river where the sun was unobstructed.
Here's something else I wish we'd had time to do in Bayonne........
"Musee" is museum -- this was the Basque Museum.......
A fancy part of a railing caught my eye.
Then I noticed this.
My.
There are lots and lots of functional shutters in southern France. That sun ... better to keep it OUT on a hot day. Exterior shutters do a much better job of that than anything inside the building can do.
See the shutters in the reflections?
A gorgeous afternoon, but warm.
Looking across the Nive again. We are starting to think of a bit of something, to sustain us until suppertime.
We had read that hot chocolate was a specialty, in Bayonne. We didn't really want a hot drink, but had to check out the hot chocolate, and, alas, they don't do iced tea in France..........
This place had lots of luscious-looking candy. We stuck to the tea and chocolate plan. Both were fine, but neither was extraordinary.
(If you buy food in a place that lets you sit down to eat, you can use their toilettes. This may be a critical piece of information............)
Then we headed toward the tourist office. We passed the cathedral, which was open, so we stopped in for a look.
Such beautiful and amazing structures.
Tourist office, with palm trees.
There were carousels absolutely everywhere. Now that I think of it, I don't think I saw a single one in heavy use, but maybe I just wasn't looking at the right time.
Lots of donkeys seen on souvenirs in southwestern France, but I didn't see any real ones in person. Wish this one looked happier......
Botanical garden just south of the tourist office.
A significant part of each day was eating in a restaurant which served food which was delicious, regional, and, with luck, also seasonal.
The foodie has a well-developed system for choosing a place. She spent some time at that, and I went back to the hotel for a bit.
Big sky over a big river..............
High water. It looks pretty still ... I bet the tide is about to change.
There was a nice wide sidewalk on each side of the bridge, so it was a comfortable walk despite all the traffic.
Love this. The colors, the ... whatever that green stuff is.......
More elderly dwellings.
I know that scientists who study such things know which patterns of growth rings mean that trees grew in a certain place at a certain time. When I see something like this, I wonder about this tree. Where did it grow? What happened around it, before it became part of this building?
I did not do a very good job of documenting our food, as the foodie was doing an excellent job. Since the food was being so thoroughly and carefully recorded, well, if I don't have a pic, I may well not remember what I had, even, let alone what I tasted that wasn't what I chose.
This was the first of these meals for me (she had been eating in the eastern part of France before I arrived).
Our dinner began with what seemed like scrambled eggs, with the special Basque peppers (which look like largish hot peppers but are not hot -- you'll see some, soon), and fish. I would never have predicted I would enjoy that, but it was delicious. I'll probably update details later, once I have access to the foodie's documentation. I think maybe there was tomato in it, too. In any case, I would be thrilled to eat that again. Yum.
Just goes to show. Keep that mind open; good things may come in!
(Or maybe not -- I am told that the tripe essayed elsewhere was not in the "let's have more of that!" category, and am not sure my mind would have been that far open.....)
The second course was hake -- the same fish that was in the omelet, and, again delicious. There wasn't too much of it, so I was hopeful that I was going to survive rather than exploding.
The next course was a large amount of steak. A cut which had a lot of bones. The meat was delicious. The doing-my-own-butchering, not my favorite. (So interesting, my daughter does not remember it as full of bones.....)
Oh, dear, I can't remember what dessert was. I remember it was really good.......
Well, we'll catch that up later.
In any case, it was way Way WAY too much food for the two of us. It was so good it was very hard to walk away from, but with no fridge-at-home to take it to.......
It took a day or two for us to discover that a workable plan was for the foodie to order the several-course option and for me to get one light thing (preferably with lots of vegetables). Then we'd share. That would give her yet another thing to try, and would let me try all the regional specialties without wishing I'd not eaten too much. That worked very well, once we figured it out.....
In any case -- here is a very dark pic of that lovely omelet/scrambled-eggs/whatever.
The decor was rustic -- there were long tables and people sat with strangers. This region, in and around the Pyrenees mountains is not suited to growing grapes. Hard cider is the drink of choice. Patrons served themselves to cider from taps in the wall, after having been shown the proper technique -- start with the glass right under the spigot, then move the glass in your hand away in an arc, then return to the spigot and turn off. Keeping the flow of cider in the glass as you move, of course.
There were two ciders -- we were told one was drier, and the other, sweeter. We liked the drier one better. It seemed more appley to us.
It was a lovely meal, if too much of it. I am sure that we could have happily fed at least one more person and all three of us would have felt quite satisfied......
Here is my daughter's take on this wonderful dinner, with good pics of same.
It was late when we left the restaurant -- around 10:00 pm. There were still plenty of people out and about, and it didn't feel at all creepy or uncomfortable to be out walking.
Here is one last pic. A bad one, I'm sorry, but look at the lights from the shore and from the next bridge downstream, as we strolled back to our hotel.......
Happy sigh. A lovely day.
In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment