a weekend with Emma and Brit

After our fabulous weekend in Zaragoza we were looking forward to Emma and Brit coming on Friday. They had arrived in Barcelona, Spain on the Saturday that we were in Zaragoza, and had a few days exploring Barcelona before taking the train to Bilbao where they picked up a rental car. They drove off to explore the wonders of La Rioja and then to wend their way to Azpeitia, Soreasu 2 where we were eagerly waiting. They finally came driving over the bridge and up our road.

It was so wonderful to see them and once they'd parked the car, got their bags and themselves up into our apartment we had a great time catching up. We finally got ourselves up and out to show them around 'our town'. Unfortunately, the weather had turned wintery and wet so we couldn't walk up to the Loiola Basilica and have an icecream in the park but we did take them to a couple of bars that we go to for pintxos and beer and then dinner and home to decide what we would do on Saturday.

The fact that they had a car and were insisting that we could go anywhere "we could drive to France" said Brit. "we could drive to France." WELL,YES WE CAN!!! IT'S ONE HOURS DRIVE AWAY WOO HOO LET'S GO TO FRANCE" I said. And that's what we did. 

We went to Bayonne, to be precise, which is about 20 minutes over the border - that is the non-existent border. We were looking out for a sign when Emma suddenly laughed and said that we were in France because the language all around us was no longer Basque/Spanish but French. Talk about an anticlimax - no stamp on our passport, only, eventually a little round sign on the side of the road, blue with the yellow stars around the outside (the EU flag) with France written across the middle of it. It was so small, just sitting on the roadside, that we'd gone past it before I could even get my camera in my hands, let alone take a photo. The same happened on the way back. I seem to be making a habit of missing the photos that I should have.

not sure if the flag is a good as a border sign

Anyway, we were all suitably excited about being in France, even though it was still drizzling.

We found our way to the Information Centre with car parking right outside the building. 

Armed with maps of the town and information about the things we should see off we went ... to the nearest cafe for a 'cafe au lait'. It was a very small cafe with only about 6 little tables although there were more tables outside on the footpath. After we'd finished we picked up our stuff and wandered off still feeling chuffed about having made it to France when suddenly we realised that people behind us were calling put, turned around to see the cafe owner running down the road after us. Yes, we'd walked out without paying. All the people sitting at tables along the footpath were having a good laugh, the cafe guy was too, luckily. Barry went back and paid up and off we went to explore.

One of the first things we commented on was the difference in the buildings from here to what we'd seen in The Basque Country or in Zaragoza. We couldn't put our finger on just what it was, something about the shutters, maybe, or the buildings were somehow lighter, maybe.

 some more buildings and a couple of my most favourite people.

 Some of the buildings looked rather rickety

 Not sure the what's going on with this roof

Some houses were very, very narrow

 

others were rather large and sturdy. This is a small,of part of a huge church - why are they so big?

 

Inside the cloisters were graves dating from the 1500s

  It seems as if someone's missing

and then we came to ....

Yes, Eden Park although not quite the Eden Park of our usual neighbourhood. There was also a castle, isn't there always, which was really old. I couldn't get a photo of all of it and the bits that I could get in a photo didn't do it justice so there is no photo of the castle but there is one of the plaque that was on a wall of the castle which gives a bit of an indication of the age, at least 900 years.

I realise that there are places and buildings and a tree or two which are older however I'm still impressed by being able to put my hands on things which have been around for soooooooo long and, what's more, this castle wasn't a ruin.

I just had to take a photo of this sign even though Emma wouldn't pose by her (almost) name

I really enjoyed walking around Bayonne but was struck by a rather curious thing. We'd left Spain and were in France but we were still in The Basque Country, the French part of The Basque Country. There were a lot of Basque souvenir shops, many, many more than I've seen in San Sebastian, and other references to being Basque.

All the while the temperature was dropping and it had got quite really cold by late afternoon so we decided to call it a day and wandered back to the car and then set off to 'the border'. We made it across, no one came to check if we had a car full of drugs or anything, not without going around in a few circles trying to get put of Bayonne, and so ended my first experience of France (without leaving Basque).  The rain set in and night arrived somewhere along the road well before we got home. The car park  at the back of our building was full so it was decided to try out the underground car park across the road from our place. There would be a cost but what else could we do so we left it there and went off to have dinner. 

The next day, Sunday, to our delight, the car park barrier was raised and we were able to drive out without having to pay. I hope a bill doesn't turn up somehow, sometime.

We drove to Vitoria, the capital, and that will have to wait until tomorrow because it os after midnight and I'm going to bed now.