Pyrénées

We got up after 8:00 a.m. – very luxurious and we went down and had a petit déjeuner at the restaurant next door. The weather was again not cooperating – it was drizzling – so we went back to get our rain gear. We went to Petit Bayonne were we visited the Musée Bonnat. It was a delightful little museum with wonderful iron work and a good small collection. I particularly liked the section on an artist Paul Cesar Helleu who drew pastels of women during the turn of the 20th Century. There were also several nice Ingres and many others. We then searched and after much delay found, the Musée Basque. This was mostly about the wood and stone work of the Basques and was less interesting than the Bonnet Museum.

We had a lovely lunch of tuna and duck outside along the river and then wandered around looking for the French tablecloths – nappe like the one we had bought last year in Nimes - without success. But we did see a Medieval Fair - we had seen some of the players in the morning - which had everything from honey and aperitifs to jewelry and cheese. We debated buying a Brébis cheese round but decided against it. After wandering the town and up into the park we returned to our room for a snooze.

We went out to dinner late; about 8:30 p.m. After walking by the river in the beautiful evening light – the sun was shining – we went to another restaurant along the river. The meal wasn't as nice as our lunch, but was still pleasant. We talked to two English women at the end of the meal who had been to Bordeaux and recommended Barcelona.

Afterwards we walked back to our hotel under the stars. We've had a lovely time and relaxing days at the end.

Tuesday was a long travel day. We arose about 5:30 a.m. taking a cab to the Bayonne airport. Our plane to Paris de Gaulle was uneventful as was the plane to Heathrow. Here we lost the handsome French people but were soon on our way back to the States. We cleared customs in record time to find Emily awaiting us outside Terminal 5. We drove home to a lovely dinner that she had prepared and had a wonderful evening on the new back porch. Phoebe was delighted!