A weekend at the Atlantic Coast

Bonjour all

Well we hit the Atlantic Coast last weekend. Two weeks before that we were on the Mediterranean, exciting times. Again we picked up Soph from kindy at midday on Friday, and drove south, as shown below...

Well, this was taken at one of the freeway stops. The freeways are great in France, and the freeway stops as well, where I've seen open air gyms, open air showers, and great picnic areas.

The drive down was fantastic. We spent about a hour or so driving near the foothills of the snow capped Pyrenees, around Tarbes and Paul, and reached Saint Jean de Luz, in the heart of French Basque Country with plenty of light to spare. It's about 20 kms north of the Spanish border. Below is a photo looking back at Saint Jean de Luz from the port's edge. I took this on Sunday morning when going for an early morning walk.

We caught some sun on the Saturday morning. Here are kids playing on the sand....

And here is Jane making the most of the conditions too .....

The beach itself actually reminded us of Bondi Beach, both long wide sandy beaches next to old school type beach holiday buildings. It's when you go a few streets back into the old part of the town that you get a real feel for the Basque area and people. We met this really nice Basque lady who ran this classy clothes shop. When we were in the shop she knew we were concerned about Connor running out so she closed the shop for us! Felt like Becks and Posh for a second, just a second. And then she ended up giving me a really nice shirt for free!

Below is a photo of Connor and I in one of the those back streets. The church behind us is France's largest and finest Basque church. The inside blew me away, lot's of ornate dark wood. This was where France's greatest king, Louis XIV, married Maria Teresa, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, in 1660. This guy was pretty impressive, he was known as the Sun King, reigned for a record 72 years during which France was the leading European power and he was succeeded by his five year old great-grandson. He outlived both his son and grandson heirs to the throne.

 

 

On Sunday morning, we headed north and ended up dropping into Bordeaux and having a picnic lunch at one of the small parks in the centre of town. It was a nice sunny day and the town looked fantastic, heaps of beautiful grand old buildings. Here is Jane and Connor kicking the soccer ball around, nice spot.

 

One of the main reasons we decided to visit Bordeaux was to see the Unesco World Heritage listed Cathedrale St-Andre. This was where Jane's very, very, very distant ancestor Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Louis VII. Yes, believe it or not, I did say distant relative, and I know it's a hard one to believe, but hey what a story! I've been to an extended family gathering of the Wyndhams, Jane's maiden name, and there she is, Eleanor of Aquitaine amongst the top of the family tree. Now she was an incredible lady, she had ten children all up including Richard the Lionheart, she first married King Louis VII of France and then after an annulment she married a chap by the name of Henry, who soon became King Henry II of England! Below is Jane and the kids outside the entrance to St-Andre, amazing church, amazing history.

Bonne santé and chance dans la vie (good health and luck in life), a bientot

Jane, Sophie, Connor, and me.