Into the Pyranees-Atlantic

Thurs.30^th May: 

Our stay in San Sebastian was brief as we were hoping to leave the rain in Spain. We returned to France and started our tour of the Pyrenees.  Unfortunately, the rain came with us.  The first stop was in Ascain, a lovely town where we wandered around, in and out of the church, down the main street, into the patisserie where a peach and custard tart was bought and into a newsagent to look at maps. 

A few kms up the road to col de St Ignace and the rack and pinion tourist railway to la Rhune,

the first summit in the Pyrenees which overlooks the Basque country from a height of 905 metres…i.e unless it’s raining and the mountain is covered in mist.  Although we’ve been in France for 3 weeks and know all about the custom of closing shop for a couple of hours from midday, we forgot the time and arrived just in time to miss the last train of the morning.  As we both were keen to go up the mountain, we decided we’d wait until 2pm for the next train and filled in the time by having a sandwich and coffee, and of course our previously bought tart, and wandering about in the rain.  By the time 2 o’clock rolled around, it was doubtful that we’d be able to see too much as the clouds had rolled in too but we went anyway!  The train was filled mostly with elderly French couples…must have been Seniors’ day out…who all tried to out talk each other but they seemed to enjoy the ride, even though the red and white striped canvas blinds at the windows did very little to keep out the wind and prevented one from seeing anything along the way. 

After stopping at the station, we bravely walked up to the summit…couldn’t see anything of the view because of the heavy mist and spent half an hour or so in the warm restaurant/shop where there was a big "jet"engine blower heater buntil it was time to return.

 

 

 The drive from there to St Pee sur Nivelle, our intended overnight stop, was spectacular, the scenery gorgeous but we didn’t stay as the park was not accessible so we drove another 14kms through a very windy road and more gorgeous scenery to Espelette, to an excellent ‘aires’ camp, with power and wifi. Jan  made a big pot of vegie soup for supper, and are about to settle down for the night.  The weather man says only ‘some showers’ for tomorrow, hope he’s right!