… at my destination for this weekend. I’m in Hendaye, which is at the extreme south-east of France and just across the river is the Basque coast of Northern Spain. And here I’ll be until Sunday night.
This was my hotel from last night – the Hotel Belle Vue. I was in the annexe in the foreground – that’s where the cheaper rooms are and, of course, I’m on the budget plan. But nevertheless, I’m not faulting for a minute the value for money. I was quite happy with this.
No complaints about the breakfast either, and with the kettle in the room I was even able to make a flask of coffee.
While I was on my travels last night, prowling around the town, I came across this sign. I had to return to photograph it this morning before I left.
If it shows anything at all, it shows that money spent on a good native-speaking translator is never wasted, no matter how good you think that your on translation might be. Although, I must admit that if the boot were on the other foot I would be happy with a sign like this.
I was in Hossegor later this morning to carry out an errand. My friend Marianne wrote a book on Pionsat and this was illustrated with photos from a bygone age.
One photo shows a man leaving the Pionsat Post Office and someone who saw the photo said “that’s Richardy, a garage proprietor from Hossegor who had a summer home in Pionsat”.
It was always on Marianne’s list to go to Hossegor and see if she could find the garage but seeing as how I was in the area I went instead. And after multiple enquiries at the Town Hall, the Police Station, the Tourist Information and the Pensioners’ Club, people think that this supermarket might have been it.
It’ll be confirmed for me on Monday.
From there, I followed the coast down to Hendaye and the weather deteriorated as I drove south. Sitting having my lunch at the port of Bayonne watching the Arklow Fortune, newly arrived from Ijmuiden, something of a storm had sprung up.
The Arklow Fortune is a rare breed of vessel by the way – she’s a freighter flying the Irish flag so it seems, and that’s not something that you see every day.
By the time I reached St Jean de Luz near Biarritz, the weather had turned decidedly nasty as you can see. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen it as bad as this. Violent was not the word.
Here in Hendaye, the seafront is closed off as they are expecting the weather to deteriorate further over the weekend with a climax on Monday evening.
But I have a hotel 10 minutes from the seafront overlooking the river that separates Hendaye from Spain. It’s basic and in the throes of being renovated, but they’ve done me a good deal on the price of a room and including breakfast, even if there is no heating yet and the room needs finishing. As I said, I’m on the budget package.
So after my excellent vegetable risotto, I’m off to bed for an early night.