Friday - St Jean-Hendaye
Only a short walk to Hendaye (13.2km officially), but off early before heat gets going. Firstly, over the bridge to Ciboure, where the marked route goes past a plaque marking the former Hôpital St Jacques. The route tries hard to avoid the main road, and at one point I lost the marking and made a lengthy loop before arriving back where I started, which didn’t please me, especially as the heat was starting to build.
Generally, however, this is a nice stretch through attractive rolling country, past a mixture of Basque farms and villas. The final bit before descending into Hendaye is through a garrigue type of scrub, where the route crosses the GR10 Pyrenean traverse. Very welcome too was the (relatively) cool breeze coming off the sea at Hendaye.
The route descends into the town via the Rue Santiago, passing the Hotel Santiago, which looked ok, and is reasonably priced. It then crosses the Pont St Jacques (which has name plaques you can photograph) into Irún and Spain, where the discrete little markers on the French side give way to Spanish waymarkers who have gone berserk, planting large yellow arrows everywhere. Are the Spanish really not capable of finding the way without such intrusive aids?
I immediately crossed over the old bridge back into France again (so was in Spain for all of 2 minutes), and had a sandwich and a beer in one of the cafes opposite the station before catching the train back to Bayonne. Though I’d not seen any pilgrims on my route, several obvious pilgrims came out of the station while I was there and set off for the Spanish side. There were also quite a few mountain walkers around.
So, would I recommend this short stretch Bayonne-Hendaye? Well, it is a densely populated strip of land with main roads to avoid, and several sections are frankly unattractive. On the other hand there are attractive bits too, and it’s generally well marked, with a free guide available on the Amis’ website. Despite its touristiness, St-Jean-de-Luz is an attractive place with a nice beach if you’re interested in such things (which I’m not). Bayonne is also a much more satisfying and ‘authentic’ place to start than either Hendaye or Irún. So on balance, I vote in favour.
At Bayonne, it was still hot, so I sat on a cafe terrasse for a long time debating where to go next. I thought about booking into a hotel, and trying the first section of the route to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port the next day, but eventually decided to take a train to Pau. Then, if it was still hot the next day, I could take the bus up to the Somport where it would be much cooler.
So, the 16.22 train got me to Pau for 17.32, and I caught the (free!) funicular up to the town just in time to get a list of hotels from the tourist office before it closed. I got a large, reasonably priced room with a bath in a back-street **.
Pau (on the Arles route) is the departmental capital and has a chateau to visit. It also has strong links with England, owing its C19 growth to popularity with wintering English people, who created golf courses and even cricket fields; the golf is still there, but whether they still play cricket? However, its main attraction remains the splendid views of the Pyrenees from the Boulevard des Pyrenées, which I remembered from previous visits many years ago.
I wandered around for quite a while looking for the restaurant quarter and eventually found it near the chateau. A good meal, but rather more than I wanted to pay. I commented to the owner on the heat and how I was glad not to have to work in a kitchen in such weather. She said it was better than the day before, when it had been ‘atroce’.
Very large TV set in the hotel room, showing 16 channels of rubbish.