Our trip to Spain!

Our hosts last week, Eddie and Irene, in the small village of Arthez-de-Béarn, are most gracious and generous. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and our trip on Monday was to Hendaye, right in the south west of France, and the city where Noëlle and I started our camino in 2007. But in 2007, we didn't see this beach, as our route took us across to Irun, Spain.

This is the view looking toards Spain in the distance.

And looking the other way, the two rocks in the water are called "the twins".

We then took a little ferry boat, the size we have in the inner harbour in Victoria, with about 6 other people, over to Hondarribia, where we had coffee, walked around and saw the local Parador, and then had lunch. In our walk around, we saw a friend of Les'

Interior courtyard of the Parador and below is the interior of the hotel itself, with stairs up to the rooms. A lovely place, but one we clearly couldn't afford, although apparently they offer seniors' rates.

Irene and I started off with a creamed spinach with parmesan cheese which tasted sooooogood.

And you know you're in Spain when you get your wine in a juice glass and not a wine glass. I went on to have cod, as I love fish. Irene thought she had ordered pork spareribs as we saw customers at other tables, just lapping it up. Well, apparently what she ordered, we think, were pig's knuckles and she couldn't find any meat at all under the sauce. So, since I had two pieces of fish under the tomato suace, I gave her one. And, of course, Les had my chips.

On Tuesday, we went for a long walk around a lake and Wednesday, more walking in the countryside just outside their front door, and then a trip to Lescar and a few other small villages, all of which seemed deserted. Lescar has a beautiful church, with a beautiful mosaic floor that is opened to the public on some occasions, somewhat like the cathedral in Sienna. Anyway, the workman were there, no access allowed, so the website is as close as we got to looking at the church; http://hodie-scolastica.tumblr.com/post/82199048726/the-cathedral-of-lescar

On the drive home on Thursday we stopped for a break just east of Toulouse where a rest area, with gift shop, restaurant, and interpretation centre have been set up beside the Canal Midi. It was fun to see some of the boats and barges tied up for the winter. On the drive home, we realized that we were close to the Mediterranean when we started feeling warmer and saw more of the stone pine tree, also known as the umbrella pine. They are quite distinctive and there are some fabulous ones in Montpellier.  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine

Our next foray from Montpellier will be to Spain later this week to visit with Stefan and Hannah and also spend a couple of days in Madrid.

À bientôt....