Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France

Bike Route: Saint Jean-de-Luz to Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, 27 miles, 3700 feet of climb

We hated to leave Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Our host, Yolande, was incredibly nice, and we enjoyed a long breakfast chatting with her through Google Translate. When we finally took off, we had a great ride to our second French village, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port--until we got close to our destination.

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was jam-packed with tourists, crazy traffic, and narrow streets. It is a lovely old fortified town, but just overrun. The GPS coordinates sent by our host took us to a central location near a hotel and a warren of small back streets. We spent a while looking for a house that matched the picture and description of our guest house, with no luck. We messaged and called our host with no response. Finally, after an hour, we got a message back from Melanie saying she would meet us on the edge of town at a car wash, and we could follow her to the farmhouse.

This brought back memories of a mad chase through the outskirts of a small town in Italy to a breathtaking guest house, at dusk, following our Italian-speaking host, who was driving a red Maserati way faster than we could pedal. Melanie drove a little slower than the Italian host, and she is from California and speaks English, but the result was just as wonderful. 

We stayed at a 300-year-old home owned by Melanie's husband, a Basque chef who has suffered several strokes and is now in a nursing home. The house has been lived in by his family since it was built. Melanie rents out four rooms on the second floor, all clean but old and decorated with the kind of mix of styles and time periods you would find in an old family home.

It was after 7:00 and we had no interest in going back 2 miles to the busy town center for dinner. Melanie was going to the grocery store and offered to take Ken with her. He returned with bread, cheese, meat, salad, and cold drinks, and we sat on the terrace overlooking the corn fields while we ate. It was perfect.

Looking out our bedroom window at the village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 2 miles away.