The last day off of the holiday and for once we were somewhere with things to do (and no laundry or bike maintenance to get in the way). We had a good wander round Bayonne, with its narrow cobbled street and fabulous cathedral, the latter being practically impossible to photograph as it is surrounded by tall buildings. We walked round the ramparts and visited the Botanical Gardens - which were more like a domestic flowerbed, Kew does not need to worry! We hadn't appreciated what a big influence the British had on this part of the world, but there were references to it everywhere. We planned a boat trip for this afternoon, but when we got there we were the only potential passengers and they only ran the trip with a minimum of 15, so we went instead to a place which makes posh chocolates and promised 'generous sampling!' A small selection of what was available to sample is shown below, there was a lot more. I hadn't appreciated how labour intensive it was - a far cry from our trip round the Bournville factory some years ago. The chocolate itself was sublime, the French go for dark chocolate, which is our favourite, and while I don't really appreciate lumps of dark chocolate in my breakfast cereal (very common over here) I have to say the are masters of the art of coated chocolates if today's samples were anything to go by. Just a shame we couldn't buy any to bring home, but I think it would melt rather quickly in them luggage.
Walking back to the hotel Chris' rather badly worn lightweight sandal finally fell apart and is now rather attractively stuck together with fluorescent yellow sticky tape - just you wait, the fashion world will soon pick up on this new trend. The hotel continues to delight, I have included a photo of The Mechanic getting out of the lift yesterday and the amazing hotel fridge- hands up anyone who has one like this at home. The drawer of the little bedside cabinet keeps opening as the floor is on such a slope.......
Most of the group for the next part of the holiday are arriving today - so far we have only found one other guy who cycled here from his home in Brittany on a steel bike similar to ours, however I was correct on the age profile and we won't feel out of place! There is frantic activity as the people who flew in today put their bikes back together and check to see if Ryanair have managed to transport them in one piece. For once it is nice not to have to worry about it. So far I have only come across one other female member of the group, although the leader is actually female and (at 49) probably the youngest person here. Tonic wine and Sanatogen should replace the carafes of paint stripper I suppose.
Final shots below are of the hotel with suicidal cyclist hanging out the window and the same one at the bridge into town. Tomorrow we head for the hills........
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