Lost in the Basque Country

When my family came to visit over Christmas in 2011, we spent a few days in the French Basque country. We rented a tiny little farm house in the middle of the countryside. From this area, we were able to drive around and visit several small towns right along the edge of the border between Spain and France.

Countryside!

Before we got to this little house, we had been visiting cities non-stop, from Madrid (plus a hundred museums there), to Toledo (more museums) to Burgos. We were wiped out, and getting tired of the city life. It was time to relax a little bit and get a taste of small town life in southern France.

Biarritz
This little town seems to be a suburb of Bayonne that extends all the way out to the Bay of Biscay. The sea really is the most enrapturing part of the town.

                                                  enraptured.

Bayonne

We spent an afternoon wandering around this little city and I think I took about fifty pictures of the bridges! (Don't worry, I'm not going to post them all!) When we arrived here, we decided to step into a bakery for a quick snack. We chose a pastry that looked tasty but decided to share it between the four of us. Each of us in turn took a bite, the pastry and its delectable filling melted in our mouths. Needless to say, it disappeared all too soon. We decided to go back into the bakery and all get one for ourselves so we didn't have to share!

Saint-Jean-de-Luz

This may be one of the most quaint little towns I have ever seen. It is largely known by surfers and tourists, so in the winter it was pretty quiet. We did end up seeing some beautiful sunsets though! I decided that I wanted to go back during the summer to visit the beach, but that still hasn't happened..

                                                                    When in France...eat crepes!

Hendaye/Hondarribia

Next on the check list is Hendaye and Hondarribia...They're actually the same town but it's right on the border between France and Spain so it has a name in French and one in Spanish. On our drive we caught a beautiful sunset! The next day, we loved it so much we had to go back and we managed to get a delicious traditional lunch at a Basque restaurant...my mouth still waters a little when I think about it. 

Adventures

We also went on a quest to find homemade sheep cheese. The woman at the tourist office told us to follow the signs that said ardi gasna....

 And we ended up here: 

Where we bought half a wheel of homemade French sheep cheese. mmmm...

Then on our way back to Spain, we decided to try out some of the Camino de Santiago where it goes over they Pyranees from France into Spain: