Sauveterre-de-Béarn

Final stop of the day was Sauveterre-de-Béarn with its bridge to nowhere.

We parked up by the church…

…with its ornate entrance.

It was all downhill from there by the side of le Tour Monréal…

…with a bridge in the distance?

The footpath passed inside (under?) this interesting building…

…Daniel & Tine posing nicely.

But that’s an odd bridge!

Reading up later we discovered that this was the gateway to the drawbridge of the wooden bridge, now nowhere to be seen

These three not posing at all!

Finally the view back to the town perched on the headland

Salies-de-Béarn

After lunch back in Anglet, our next destination was Salies-de-Béarn, a small town famed (and named) for the naturally occurring saline water. 

The photo doesn’t really show the huge crack in the church tower. We took our lives in our hands walking past!

Some back streets were heavily decorated with plants…

…some just growing out of the side of the road.

Local legend says that an injured wild boar once fell into a nearby marsh and when it was recovered it was covered in salt and completely preserved. Nowadays local salt is used in the preservation of ‘jambon de Bayonne’

In the town centre the river is channeled…

…with room for flooding and access over bridges.

Some other David obviously visited here too…

…but he’s not as well-known as the wild boar!

Nowadays you can ‘enjoy’ salt-water treatment with naturally heated water, 10 times saltier than the sea!

The cloisters

Like many religious buildings Bayonne cathedral has a space for quiet reflection and meditation: its cloisters.

A foretaste from the road

Now inside, reflection, meditation and shade too!

The cathedral as a backdrop…

…with gargoyles waiting for the rain so they can do their job.

I like a bit of shadow!

Bayonne Cathedral

What a magnificent building!

With Bayonne’s narrow streets you suddenly come across the cathedral…

…and it’s very difficult to do the entrance arch justice!

Once inside, there’s sombre…

…and wonderful colour.

An ornate but stylish pulpit…

…and lovely flowers.

Bayonne

We first visited Bayonne many years ago with memories of ‘La Fête’, complete with running of the bulls and several days and nights of festivities.

Gateway to the old town from ‘le jardin botanique’

The cathedral spire photobombing a typical apartment block (more of the cathedral next time)

One of the towers of the old château 

We were lucky that it wasn’t too crowded 

This building existed in the sixteen hundreds

The information panel says, ‘This building is a “survivor” of Bayonne’s housing dating back to 1690 when there would have been 650 such houses. It has admittedly lost its corbel and wooden window frames, but it still has its gabled façade overlooking the street and most of the original wooden sections in the form of the cross of Saint-Andrew’

Journey back to Anglet

Like all good tour-guides Nicole & Daniel took us home via a different route.

First stop, an old Motte & Bailey castle at Saint-Jean-le-Vieux

The motte was clearly visible…

…but we were unable to visit the remains of the nearby Roman camp.

Next stop, Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry with its church…

…impressive organ…

…and three-tier balustrades.

Our final stop was at Ossès and the Poterie Goicoechea

Website here for those with a few thousand euros/pounds to spare (https://poterie-goicoechea.com/fr/ )

Merci, Nicole, pour les photos de la poterie!