Hola dear family and friends, yes we have crossed the border into Spain, to be exact the Basque country, but more of that in a second.
We spent last weekend staying with Fang’s cousin Denise and her husband Mick. Charming couple, however, I am a little suspicious regarding their motives for moving to France....... when they go out they always wear very big hats and very dark glasses, when they pick friends up from the airport they always insist on blindfolding them for the drive back to their house, Denise orders stuff from Asda in the UK and has it delivered to the house next door and Mick wanders around the house cracking his knuckles and muttering “I was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”. Mysterious past aside Mick and Denise are an absolutely delightful couple and we spent a wonderful weekend in their house (somewhere in France). They are without a doubt the bestest host and hostess in the whole of France and possibly the whole of the EU. If you are looking for a B&B somewhere in France I can recommend a stay here.......for obvious reasons I can’t give out their details here but if you send me details of your dates and length of stay together with a stamped addressed envelope and £50 deposit I will forward you the directions and their terms & conditions......actually Mick and Denise only have one term & condition......don’t tell the rozers where you’re going on holidays.
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| Denise & Mick's pad somewhere in France |
Since our last posting we have moved on a pace but I am afraid that this is the first chance we have had to get an internet connection to update the blog as we are staying on a campsite for the first time in nearly two weeks.
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| The church at St Emillion built into the rock face |
Since our last blog we have travelled down along the south west coast of Brittany and on to a city called La Rochelle, where we can recommend a lunch of grilled sardines served on paper plates out in the open air at the harbour side.
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| Harbour at La Rochelle |
Then on to Arcachon, a seaside town just south west of Bordeaux. Nothing to recommend Arcachon itself, except that just outside the town, a little way down the coast is the biggest sand dune in Europe, a massive 100m high and 2.5k long. It is a fantastic sight and a brilliant slide down from the top, well worth the climb up!
We then spent our last night in France in the middle of the National Park south of Bordeaux. This overnight stop cost us 2 EUR, for a pitch in the middle of the forest....brill.
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| Last overnight stop in France |
The next day found us over the border in the beautiful city of San Sabastian. The city is overlooked by an enormous statue of Christ sitting on the hill. He looks down on a white sandy beach which seems to be the focal point of this medieval city. Here we had our first experience of the Basque cuisine Pintxo in a city bar. You go in, order your drink and just stand at the bar helping yourself to the goodies. Then when you are ready to go you just tell chappy behind the bar what you had and he tots it up and off you go, great lunch.
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| Pintox in San Sabastian |
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| JC overlooking San Sabastian |
After a night stop at San Sebastian we drove on to Pamplona, right into the heart of Basque country. Now here’s a thing, we are driving around the city trying to find a parking space, bear in mind that with the 20ft Trundle Bus we need a larger than average space. There I am waiting at a set of traffic lights which I found a bit confusing, thought I was good to go on a right turn but not the case. I get pulled over by the Spanish fuz, they were sitting there right behind me but couldn’t see them tucked away behind the Trundle. Lady Spanish copper jumps out of squad car looking furious and starts giving me a rollocking in Spanish (funny thing was I knew exactly what she was saying), but nevertheless I shrugged my shoulders and said ‘Sorry I’m English’. The effect was that the rollocking went on but in a louder voice and a lot more arm waving, she must have read my first blog! Then her mate Mr Spanish copper comes up; he can speak a bit of English and asks me ‘what are you doing here’, ‘just trying to find a parking spot to go and visit the city’ says I. There then followed a long discussion between them both at the end of which he says to me ‘you have to follow us now’. Well, I thought this was it, off to the cop shop, into a Spanish slammer and a phone call to the British Embassy it is then. Fang by this time is apoplectic, or whatever that is in Spanish. So into their squad car they jump and off we go and go and go. They seem to be just taking us around the city. At one stage I said to Fang that I thought they might be a bit lost themselves and couldn’t just find their cop shop (that went down like a lead balloon I can tell you). Next thing is we stop , Lady Spanish copper jumps out and tells me to go and park over there (this is all in Spanish and sign language you understand). Anyway I get the idea and do what I am told and park up, but the next thing Mr Spanish copper jumps out, says that’s no good and I have to follow them again. So now I’m thinking they are putting me through some sort of driving test to see if I can park my van! Off we go round and about for a bit and then into a back street where they both indicate to another parking spot. This time they seem happy with the result. Mr Spanish copper says to us ‘if you walk through the park there you will come to the older part of the city’. They then smile, shake my hand and off they go......bugger me if they hadn’t just spent the last 10 minutes driving round trying to find us a parking space, no ticket, no fine, no slammer, didn’t even want to look at any docs. Tell you what though, Fang’s not been the same since, she’s off her grub and can’t seem to put a coherent sentence together. Anyway for all that we had a very pleasant time in Pamplona although we didn’t take any photos just on the off chance there might be some by-law banning photo taking in the city on Thursdays.
Next stop was Vitoria which is the capital of the Spanish Basque Country, for an overnight stop. Vitoria is actually not much cop, we didn’t think anyway.
So, here we are on a little campsite just outside of a city called Burgos and its Easter Saturday. We will be off to see Burgos in the morning and then heading for the north coast of Spain. Will keep you all posted again when we get the chance. Adios.
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| Crossing the Pyranees |
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| Happiness is a nice lake & a good woman |
