Bayonne

If both San Sebastian and St. Jean Luz were coastal cities, the lovely little town of Bayonne, which is still in the heart of Basque country, lies strictly inland albeit at the juncture of two rivers. The rivers Nive and Adour split Bayonne into three parts—St. Esprit, to the north of Adour, Grand Bayonne which lies on the western bank of the Nive and Petit Bayonne which lies on the eastern side. One peculiarity of Bayonne is that until 1907 houses had to be built within the town’s fortifications. Strictly speaking the area to be covered within Grand and Petit Bayonne is not very big. But part of this town’s charm is how easy it is to get lost among its maze of narrow curved streets.

A row of traditional houses with their distinctive red and blue shutters. Funnily enough, they reminded me a little of traditional houses in Colmar! Go figure!

One of the charming little fountains that you can find within Petit BayonneHere you can catch a glimpse of the twin towers of the Cathedral of Ste. Marie
I love how well preserved everything is...red and blue shutters are a trademark of Basque land..
Bayonne is famous for its ham (there's even a Ham Fair during Easter week!) but while we were there I was much more interested in their chocolate! The town does great chocolate and the top two are Daranatz and Cazenave. Hard to decide which is better!

Speaking of food, we had lunch at this teeny place by the river and the food was soooo good!
This picture doesn't do the food justice!