Stayed in Caen today, breakfast at the great coffee place, Keys and Co. Then some walking around and general exploration. After a salad for lunch, off on a ride on the free Navette and some other general exploration. Chateau was under construction and largely not explorable. Dinner at wonderful restaurant nearby that turned out to have only been open for a week. Squash soup followed by a pork belly dish. Well done!

Off to Honfleur this morning, about a 1:45 drive from Caen. Lovely little harbor, touristy but charming and welcoming. After some walking around and exploration, a seafood lunch at one of the less touristy spots. Then it was off to check out Deauville, a ritzy beach resort place with a casino that is often a vacation place for Parisians. Much less charming and more of a big city type place. From there we stopped into Pierre Huet, one of the more well known Calvados producers. They tasted us on some 20, 30 and 40 yr old Calvados, interesting stuff!!! Back to Caen where an Apero was in order followed by a fairly decent walk to a restaurant called Le Bouchon Vaugueux. This ended up being an excellent choice run by Madame in the front and husband who was the chef. Had the most tender steak I’ve ever had in France. A solid day!

After getting through the morning internet tasks, it was off to Cherbourg. Pam has a rental Fiat 500 and drove us a little over an hour and Half to Cherbourg. Turned out to be be massively under construction with roads and sidewalks ripped up everywhere. Never the less we found an excellent place for lunch and had some oysters and fish for lunch. Then after some exploration, we headed to the Cite de la Mer, which had a submarine, a lot of interesting deep dive submersibles and a very good Titanic exhibit. Turns out the Titanic departed from here before it met its fate. With a speeded up time line and projections a narrative showed how the fateful evening progressed. Quite well done. After absorbing this, back in the car, stop for gas, who knew you could fit 48 euros worth of gas into a fiat 500 and not even an empty tank? Then a stop at one of Joan’s cider suppliers, (French cider.com) Herout, where we were given a most excellent tour and tasting. They also make some Calvados and do some interesting aging with the cider. After that back to Caen, some apero in house with Comte and Beaufort bought at farmers market and then to Monsieur Louis, upscale cafe for a lovely dinner.

Got a reasonably early started and headed down to the Port de Plaiscance for the Caen Sunday market. This is a huge affair lining both sides of the port canal with booths of food and other things. We found Key and Co. That did a great Avocado toast, GF, and excellent coffee. Then exploration through the market, with bike rally, race going on. After lunching on some crepes, back to AirBnB for some down time. Then a good walk up to an interesting cemetery and some gardens, followed by an Apero in Pl St. Saveur and then dinner at Bistronome. Dinner, good foie Gras but average other food and wine. Felt like lots of walking today particularly because mostly on paved surfaces. (21,312 steps, 10.4 miles)

Today started early with breakfast at 6:30am followed by a bus ride to the Bayonne Station for 7:48am train to Paris. That went off well, and arrived right on time at 12:03pm at Montparnasse, and that gave me just under an hour to get to my Normandy train at Gare St. Lazare. Looked like the metro was the way to go and luckily the 13 line was not a super long walk. Crowds were unbelievable but fortunately I had my Navigo Easy with some tickets on it and went right through. Got to St. Lazare with about 25 minutes to spare and had a smooth ride to Caen. Then a bus to AirBnb that Pam has rented. After unpacking, some laundry and a shower it was out for a Planche of Charcuterie and an apero. Caen has lots of youngsters as it is a college town and many sidewalk cafes and restaurants.

After grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel, I got an early start, caught the Navette to the train station and hopped a train over to Saint Jean de Luz, a fishing village on the coast about 20 minute ride away. The train station was just above the big covered market, which in addition to being in full swing was surrounded by booths and merchants on the outside as well. All kinds of great smells from cheeses to Paella to Thai food. Had a coffee and did a little walk around, before doing the standard Petit Train tour. Always a quick and easy way to get an orientation to a new place in France. After spending an inordinate amount of time choosing a place for lunch, one had Skate wing, so that won out. Unfortunately they didn’t work great magic with it and Sotto Mare in SF as well as Le Sancerre in Paris does a much better job, oh well. Quick 10 minute TGV ride to Biarritz station, which unfortunately is nowhere near the center of town, so then 20 minute bus ride down into town. Walked around and ended up on the promenade down the Grande Plage, the big beach. Lots of surfers and sunbathers but weather a little hot for hanging out. Headed back up into the town and bus due in 12 minutes that runs all the way back to my hotel, hopped on that and about 45 minutes later back at the hotel. Amazing how you can get around on transit if you no how to do it. Let me make it clear though, for this kind of winging it you absolutely need a phone that works and the right apps. In this case SNCF-Connect lets me by last minute tickets as I’m walking into the station using Apple Pay, just fabulous. I’d previously bought an all day bus Pass for under 4 euros so that I could hop on and off any of the buses without fumbling. After a cool down in the hotel, back on the plaza with a glass of rose, and plotting tomorrow’s sortie. Train leaving at 7:49am so need to be out the door of the hotel by 7:00am to get bus to station, then a long ride to Montparnasse in Paris followed by a tight change of station, 56minutes, to Gare St. Lazare. Looks like the Metro will actually be speedier than taking a taxi…Switch to pickpocket resistant pants… Then it is off to Caen in Normandy where I’m meeting Seattle friend and fellow Francophile Pam for some Normandy exploration. She has a car, something I don’t usually do, so that will open up some new areas.

It was really nice not having to get up to an alarm this morning, pretty much the first time in 2 weeks. Got up, had a full breakfast at the IBIS, packed up and took my bags on the bus into town and left them at the new hotel. Went over to the covered market for a look see and a coffee and then did a bit of a walk around. Hotel graciously called when my room was ready, so headed back to check in and get situated. The IBIS rooms are perfectly fine, no muss, no fuss but having the hotel be over 1km from where the center of things is doesn’t really work particularly when I like to stop back at my room a few times during the day. I will say the bus service here is excellent and the same Transit app I use in SF, Seattle and Hawaii works to predict arrival times here. Last night I did a sort of tapa crawl. Ham and cheese board at first place, then walked around and had a Chistorra sausage and some Padron peppers at another place, but that was about it for me. I’m generally eating a bigger meal at lunch and not a big meal for dinner. Did some reasearch and planning to do a little bit of a round robin on transit tomorrow. Start with a bus ride to St. Jean de Luz about 40 minutes, will explore there, then ride over to Biarritz, have a look around there, and then bus back to Bayonne. All covered by a day pass costing under 4 euros. Found out as I was walking out this afternoon that a number of people are assembling for a Rick Steves Basque Country tour. Would be fun if Rick turned up! I will say that he is good at picking well located hotels so that tour members can walk around and be in the center of things. Today was hot again, so had to hide out in the, fortunately, working A/C at the hotel. My room thermostat was locked at 24c/75F, which the desk clerk informed me was the official temperature at which people will not get sick from the A/C being too cold… who knew? She unlocked it for me because she new Americans tolerate colder temperatures. Went to a ham producer tasting this afternoon that was a 45 minute tour. But mainly consisted of descriptions of the ham being rubbed with salt and taken up and down the stairs. Spoken in very rapid French and not very interesting.

One thing that is really great in France is that you can get almost anywhere cheaply and using transit if you work at it a little. In this case a bus, 2 euros, from just a few yards away from my hotel came right on time at 8:13am delivering me to the nearest train station at Mont de Marsan about 40 minutes later. The train wasn’t until 10:46am so off to find a cafe, a short hike away. Then luckily my first train was on time, but the second was slightly delayed. No matter, by 12:40pm arrived in Bayonne and a 10 minute walk from the station took me to the IBIS Centre. Very generic but fine, although when I went in search of lunch I found that I have really booked myself in the wrong area of town. Because of the multiple rivers, it is a hike to the center and the action. Bayonne has free Navettes and lots of transit, but I found another hotel from the same ACCOR chain that is right in the center, and a Mercure, and was able to shorten my stay at the IBIS and transition to the Mercure tomorrow. This is the kind of city I immediately like with lots of sidewalk plazas, lots of outdoor cafes, little alleys and just a lot going on. I walked around a bit, had a mediocre lunch and then hopped in one of the free Navette for a ride around to get oriented. Found the covered market, which I will check out tomorrow and a number of churches etc. There is frequent, as in every 20 minutes, bus service to Biarritz, 30minutes, so I think I will go there for lunch on Friday. While it is nice to not have to walk with 20 lb pack 4-5hours a day, plenty of walking is still going on. Currently sitting at a cafe near the Mairie at the nexus of the 3 bridges and watching all kinds of traffic and people go by. This is the main connection point for people heading up to Saint Jean Pied de Port to start the Camino Frances across Spain. I have been through before but didn’t stay and therefore have not explored the town.

Nogaro ended up being not much of a town, with everything closed and of course temperatures above 90degrees doesn’t make for good exploring. I completely failed at any attempt to locate lunch and ended up grabbing a bag of chips at the Carrefoure and heading back to my room, which was mercifully cool. In the process, I found the local taxi company and after much discussion about how it was not possible to drop me down the road a bit, we eventually arrived at it being possible. Tony the owner was charming. The Gite was a Chambre d’Hote a higher level of service and the owner really put on a nice dinner for me with Duck Confit and veggies etc. The room was palatial. After a quick breakfast, I went down to the taxi place, and on the minute, Tony zoomed up and took me to a little village down the road. A 15 minute ride saved me over 4hrs. Of walking. Today was overcast and cooler so much for pleasant and I still got in just under 3 hours of walking but arrived at my hotel in time to change and catch something to eat at the nearest restaurant. The town is on the river, Adour, and has many old buildings etc. I did a quick circuit and then installed myself on a terrace. Perfect timing as a brief but significant rain storm came through. So, this completes the Camino section for this trip, roughly 200km with about that much remaining to Saint Jean Pied de Port where I plan to end this particular adventure. Tomorrow, I will take the bus to the nearest train station, about 40 minutes and then take 2 TER trains to Bayonne. Bordeaux has the world Rugby thing going on and was very booked up so decided to check out Bayonne, smaller and at the foot of the Pyrenees.

Eauze turned out to be a very pleasant town, with the only restaurant in business on Sunday night being La Vie en Rose. Lovely outdoor terrace and even though the owner was waiting on all of the tables, she took very good and prompt care of me. Some of the best Duck confit that I’ve had. When I looked at the 21km planned for today, I realized that it was not going to work for me, so arranged a taxi to drop me part way. Taxi was only free at 11:00am, but that gave me a nice relaxed morning. I was dropped in Manciet, which ended up being about 2.5 hrs. Of walking at a brisk pace to get to Nogaro. My Apple app showed about 8 miles, now 10 after exploring the town with over 20,000 steps, which seemed like plenty. It got really hot this afternoon, 91degrees. Of course by the time I got to town, settled into my gite, had a shower, nothing was either open or serving food. Situation normal in France. For those unfamiliar, let me review the rules of eating in France. You are only permitted to eat between 12:00pm and 2:00pm, and only then if you have a reservation. After 2:00pm you will have to wait until 7:00pm or 7:30pm before being allowed to eat. These rules apply even to fairly decent size towns, but not to really big cities like Paris. An of course, since all the restaurants are likely to be full during the 12:00pm-2:00pm slot, don’t try to go to the grocery store, because that will be closed from 12:00pm to 3:00pm, after all, why would you want to buy food at the time that you might want to eat? But wait, I forgot to mention, many things are just not open at all on Sunday, why? Because it is Sunday. Also many restaurants and grocery stores are not open on Monday, why? Because it is Monday. While this all sounds laughable to Americans, I actually am not kidding, this is really how it is, except the prohibition on serving people lunch will often be invoked as early at 1:30pm. Anyway, with no lunch on the horizon, I was able to find the local Carrefour and get a bag of chips to tide me over. With the weather so hot, back to the gite to hunker down until it cools off. Tomorrow, for some reason Walk The Camino has me scheduled for 27km/17miles! That is not happening! Found the local taxi company and after much explaining that they were “Complet“ the owner took pity on me and agreed to run me 15km down the road to a village at 10:00am tomorrow. That will save well over 4 hours of walking, and still leave a few hours to go. Made arrangements to go to Bayonne for a few days before heading to Caen.