This Sunday morning was a market day in Espelette, but not a food and vegetable market. It was a flea market. We have seen a few of these around but they require too much time and we have precious little room to buy anything anyway. On the way out of town we did, however, buy a loaf of cranberry bread and a nice piece of cheese to get us up the first and only real hill of the day. Today`s ride was to be very short with the intention of having time to see two Basque villages that are listed as Plus Beaux Villages de France-a French association for villages of distinction.
Our hotel. We loved it here but it does not hurt to get an upgrade to a larger room either!
Leaving Espelette on the D20 was a brutal 2km uphill, not because of the hill, but because of the number of cars and the no shoulder road. It was a very busy Sunday morning and we could not figure out where everyone was going. There was a quieter road nearby that connected with the top of the hill but in route planning, this was missed. The traffic continued with us all the way to Ainhoa and as the highway turned left into the town the heavy car traffic went right through the middle of the town. In fact we almost missed the town before we had realized that we had just ridden right through it! We backtracked and went to a cafe in a beautiful historic building for a coffee. We sat beside the front street and watched in amazement at the highway with all its traffic funneling right down the main street. Needless to say, although Ainhoa has many beautiful well preserved Basque buildings, the car traffic completely ruined the experience for us.
Leaving Ainhoa we took a backroad detour before connecting to the D305. Fortunately, the D305 was mostly car free and it was a great ride to Sare. We arrived in Sare just in time for lunch at a cafe. Timing here is critical as most restaurants in France only serve lunch until around 2 o`clock and then there is nothing available until 7:00 when restaurants open for dinner. The smoked salmon salad and a quiche was just what we needed.
With a hotel check in time of 4 o`clock we had plenty of time to wander about and enjoy this almost car free, quiet village. This was a very worthy stop and a great place to spend the night.
17rh century houses in the village of Ihahar. It was an exceptional small town with a surprising number of chambre d`hotes that we sort of just stumbled upon.
The famous Basque cakes for sale at an outside kiosk in Sare. There were very few people around and we wondered how they could possibly sell all these cakes. And then a tour bus arrived!
You can see most of the historic area of Sare from the one central square. The bell tower in the background is for the 17th century Church of Saint Martin.
Inside the church of Saint Martin. Basque churches have the unusual feature of having rows of balconies - In the church at Sare there are three rows of balconies. This picture is looking away from the alter and toward the organ and the door.
A 'fronton' is a place where the traditional Basque sport of Pelote is played, with two players and a ball which is hit against a wall, rather like playing squash outdoors. The bleachers here indicate that it could attract a number of spectators.
There were no live games happening so included this photo of a picture from a nearby store. We are told that the game is played either with your hand, racket or a glove with a long curved hook looking extension.
For dinner there were only two open restaurants. We had a great meal across the street from our hotel at the Arraya. We were celebrating completing the 1000KM mark and we will be reaching our end goal of Hendaye on the Atlantic coast tomorrow. The service and our dishes at Arraya were both excellent. We had a lovely evening.
Dessert: Some sort of chocolaty thing. We can never say no to chocolate and this was the last serving that they had tonight so we snapped it up, with two spoons of course.
