10th April 2024 - Off to France!

After a beautiful breakfast at the hotel it was upstairs for a final pack before saying a sad goodbye to a gorgeous hotel.

The Uber dropped us at the Stansted airport and that was a remarkably easy process with RyanAir.  The airport is pretty huge so we headed down towards the departure lounge hub central to check the departure board and for our flight as it said “Just relax” so we did!  We stopped and had a cup of coffee and people watched.

Gate numbers are only posted on the board about 40 minutes before boarding so we were constantly checking the board. The gate number was finally posted so we headed down towards the gate and stopped and had a drink while waiting.  The drinks had been on the table for about 5 minutes when there was a go to gate post on the board so we downed what was left and headed to our gate.

Boarding had already started and we went through the gate and down steps to walk across the tarmac to the waiting plane.  We were in row 3 on opposite sides of the aisle but we didn’t have anyone in the seats next to us so we both moved to windows so we could have a look out the windows on the 90-minute trip to Biarritz.  It is always amazing to be able to see the world from above and watch the patterns of the fields, the roads, the rivers and finally the shoreline of France.

Biarritz airport arrival was very smooth and the passport check was very quick.  We had a quick chat to another couple of pilgrims – one a lovely man in his 70’s from South Carolina who is coming to only walk from St Jean Pied de Port to Pamplona but is planning on returning in autumn to walk the entire thing. The other person was a young man who was planning on walking the entire route and was heading straight to St Jean Pied de Port that afternoon to start tomorrow.

Our Uber driver, Benjamin, was lovely.  He has Spanish, French and Czechoslovakian heritage and we had a great chat on the way to Bayonne where he negotiated some very small streets before dropping us off at the corner as the entry for our hotel was down a pedestrian only street.

We checked in and our lovely host, Leon, gave us all the information about Bayonne and where we should go.  We were given Room 4 and of course there is no lift as it is a medieval building, so we wound our way up the slightly musty smelling narrow staircase before getting to our room.  The room was lovely – a good size compared to many French rooms we have had in the past, very clean and not musty at all.  The windows were open and we could see up and down the cobblestoned street.  To our right the cathedral and to our left the river.  Perfect – even with the slanting floor!

We headed out to explore and did a circuit admiring all the medieval buildings and all the beautiful coloured houses – often in need of some serious renovations.  The river appeared to be in flood and the water was rushing in leaving only a small amount of room under the bridge arches.  There was a lot of flood debris – even a tree trunk about 10m long and about 30cm in diameter.

I found a couple of lovely shops where a few small purchases were made for the grandchildren.  By this stage it was after 6pm so we headed back down to the water to have some dinner before heading back to the room for bed.