Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Le Pays de Morlaàs

Morlaàs is a little town (population around 5,000) just north of Pau. It has a lot of history (from the 9th to the 13th century, it was the capital of Béarn) but nowadays it seems more like a wealthy suburb of Pau. It's surrounded by a lot of little villages and hamlets, as well as farms, and the countryside provides a good set of hikes and bike rides (mountain and road) near my house. The terrain is flattish but there are lots of steep little lung bursting climbs for variety. There are plenty of well maintained country lanes and farm tracks, so winter mud isn't a horrible problem. I've been doing a bunch of hikes there recently, often looking S to the big peaks of the Pyrénées where I hope to be hiking come late spring. 

A few pics.


Saturday, March 10, 2018

Hendaye and Hondarribia

Central square with the Castillo de Carlos V on the right
Hendaye is the last coastal town in France before Spain and just across the river is the first Spanish town, Hondarribia. This is the Basque country, and Hondarribia is the Basque name - in Spanish it is Fuenterribia and in French, Fontarribia. We'd never heard of Honarribia / Fuenterribia / Fontarribia until today; but we visited it on chance and it really blew us away. It is charming!

We drove down to Hendaye for a little day trip; it's about 90 minutes from Pau. We wanted coffee when we arrived and stumbled upon a cafe run by a Brit and he said that Hondarribia was lovely and we could take a boat there. After exploring Hendaye (typical French Basque architecture, with a relaxed 'spread out' feel for a coastal town) we took the little boat across the bay to Hondarribia. 

Typical architecture inside the walled town
We found a walled city, with a central square complete with a 10th century castle which is now a fancy hotel showing signs of past French / Spanish 'disputes' in the form of cannon-ball damage. The rest of the city was very attractive; cars are restricted and this makes it much easier to stroll and enjoy a town. The architecture was stunning; Spanish-Basque isn't unlike the French version, but it's still quite different. We had a tapas style lunch - with very strong cider - in a little bar. Afterwards we did more exploring before returning to Hendaye and eventually driving home, a little shocked to have never heard of such a cute place.

A few pics.