France 61 - a crepe, a cup of cider and a hot hot part of France

---

Suzy has heard her first cicadas of the trip. Stopping at an aire the heat was palpable and the cicadas doing there best to outchirp each other in the long dried grasses. The sky was turning bluer although there were a lot of clouds. We could see the foothills of the Pyrannees in the distance through the mist and haze. We even saw our first french family using the hedgerows as a toilet. Why is it when there is a perfectly good toilet in your motorhome, a perfectly clean and tidy toilet in the shop or rest area but you still chose to traipse off into the bushes to wee in full view of public. First the mother and young daughter, then the father with the two boys. Logic defies me. But I guess this is still better than the guy we saw in Alsace who entered the bushes armed with his toilet paper. We knew what he was going for!!!!

The campsite at St Jean du Luz wasn’t that easy to find. Normally ACSI sites are well signposted from some distance out of town but here no sign of anything and to make matters worse all the signs were in the two languages. French first and then Basque. Snoopy the Sat Nav suggested we went down what looked like a narrow road. We ignored her. Sometimes you do this at your peril. We drove past and tried to work out how to get to the sea and the campsite. Down one road – a low bridge stopped us in our tracks. Another road and she wanted us to turn round and took us back to the narrow road we had refused to go down in the first place. In the end we had to give in gracefully and took the narrow road which wasn’t as narrow as it first looked.

We did have to stop for traffic and did go through a narrow bridge and over a tiny one but eventually came to the camping ground Camping International Arremeda. 100 yards from the Atlantic breakers. A sight of surfers on body boards reminded me of Bude or Newquay in Cornwall. Reception was open and we paid 17 euros per night for two nights camping. We needed the laundrette and a day to get over the drive down here.

WiFi was 3 euros per day and access available all over the campsite. Laundrette 5.30 euros but this included the soap powder. I was taken round in a golf buggy to pick my plot. The first had a car on it, the second too close to the swimming pool and the shop/restaurant and the third a long way from anything . I picked the plot with the car on it and the camp owner leaned out of the buggy and yelled at the Belgium caravan owner who had used his own plot and put his car on what was going to be our plot to shift it pronto. If looks could kill ………. I thought unkindly tuggers who park anywhere. Tuggers is the term motorhomers use for caravan owners who tug their caravans everywhere. It was obvious our Belgian neighbours had been here a while, had put their caravan to the back of the plot and erected their awning. They had brought out their two bikes and straddled the plots with them, placed their BBQ on the next plot and placed their chairs and tables on their own. There was no room for their car and they decided that the shade of the tree in our plot was perfect for their car. They still glared all day at us for making them move.

We set up, tried Kathrein and picked up English TV all the main stations of BBC1,BBC2 and ITV. Not sure how far south into Spain she will work but so far she is working perfectly. We put our chairs out and sat for a while waiting for the laundry to wash. It soon dries in this heat which is now over 30 degrees and warming up nicely. The shorts are out.

After this we set off to walk to St Jean du Luz a straightforward, easy 2 km walk according to reception and the campsite blurb. We started off along the seafront, passed two other camping sites and then to what looked like a split in the path. One path going round what we thought might be a bullring and the other followed the main road. This was the long way round, up the hill in hot steamy weather, along the side of the main railway line and up another hill until eventually we hit the town centre – the centre ville. A lot longer walk than advertised and hard going in the heat of the early evening.

St Jean du Luz is a pretty place with shops on either side selling charcuterie , bread and pattiseries, cheeses and has clothing shops , restaurants and cafes spilling out into the street typical French style. Plane trees giving a bit of respite from the heat. We sat under one drinking coca colas. The main street is long and as we walked we saw gelateria, stalls selling churros and chocolate and shops selling typically Basque items ranging from berets to bracelets, from fridge magnets to clothing. Other shops sold crepes and shoes. Anything you wanted was there. From good quality stuff to tourist tat. The cafes were full of young things all smoking and older women dressed all in the same colour pretty pink from their dresses and blouses to their matching pink sandles.

We sat near the beach and people watched. Groups of young boys and girls sunbathed and swam in the Atlantic. Lifeguards protected the swimmers. Bronzed old men and woman sat on the beach sunbathing some women topless. A lighthouse stood to one side of the beach and a fort to the other end. It was possible to get tickets for a boat trip to the fort which left the harbour at 10 the following morning and at the time we did ponder walking in again and going on that trip. And still we sat and people watched. The houses along the harbour front pretty and typically French with a Spanish twist to them. Sometimes it was hard to tell which country you were in. Boys played rugby on the beach, surfers took to the waves on their body boards. We walked through the town and found the very odd church which was fortified in appearance and very dark inside. Wooden balconies stretched around the walls, a huge wooden organ to one end , a ship dangling from the ceiling and an ornate very dark altar to the other end. Too dark inside to take photos that did it justice. I can say that we have never quite seen anything like it on our travels.

We ate tea overlooking the sea, a crepe avec citron for me , a crepe fruit for Glenn full of Chantilly cream, ice cream, bananas and chocolate, a stella lager and a cidre for me. When was the last time you drank cidre brut from a teacup. Yes it was a first for me too.

Our walk back took us along the harbour wall and up the hill. We thought we knew where we going and that it would be shorter this way than going back the way we had come. Unbeknown to us the footpath was closed part way up the hill and we had to back track to find another path around. This we did but we had little idea as we walked down roads through quiet leafy suburbs if we were going in the right direction or where we would come out. All we knew was that we were keeping the sea when we could see it to our right. Eventually after quite a long hike we found the track back signposted and found our way to the main road by the bullring/stadium and after that it was just a short walk home. 2 km each way . I don’t think so . It certainly felt a whole lot longer than that.

St Jean du Luz is a lovely place to spend a day or two. We wont move on tomorrow. We might get down the town again or then again we may spend the day reading, swimming and doing absolutely nothing. Next stop Spain.

---

Photos

St Jean du Luz
Centre Ville

St Jean du Luz
The fort offshore

St Jean du Luz
The lighthouse

St Jean du Luz
Inside the church