BAYONNE

And now for something nearly the same, but not.... A Walk in Bayonne!

During our trip to France recently, I took piles of photos. I'm slowly going through them bit by bit. These aren't even my favorites, so keep watching this space for when I get around to those. Today you get Bayonne.

Bayonne is known for chocolate, so we headed first to the chocolaterie. We bought some chocolate, but also one of these gateaux basque, a basque specialty we saw throughout the region. They come with either cream filling or cherry filling. I prefer cream, and I have a recipe (in French) that I'll have to try over Christmas.

Soon after eating a piece, I got a headache. Not sure if there was corn something in the cake (the shopkeepers had assured us there wasn't) or if it was the perfume on the bus ride there. Anyway, the town was still pretty and we kept on walking.

Shopping seems to be a major point of going to Bayonne. We refrained, except for the chocolates, and contented ourselves with staring at buildings.

For me, the beauty of Bayonne was all in the details, like these windows with colored curtains and the little cozy balcony below:

Many of the buildings have this cool colorful style:

Along the river front was especially beautiful:

I saw this scooter. It wanted me to bring it home with me, but I told it I had another little scooter waiting for me in Seattle, which missed me very much, and would be sad if I brought another one home.

We also went to the excellent Basque history museum, but I have no photos of that to show you. Sorry 'bout that. It was too dark to get any good ones. Besides, the best thing was the film from the 1920s or so, showing the Basque shepherds and their cool espadrilles and berets and their sad young men heading off to America to make their fortunes. There were also some pretty great farm tools which I intend to copy when I'm old and grey and living on a farm with lots of time on my hands.

After this trip, I definitely want to be Basque when I grow up.