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.

Well, a ride did not materialize to get me home from the town, so I hoofed it back to the Gite, about 4km/ 1hr. Lunch was worth it though. On return, a group of French ladies from Paris had checked in, 8 of them and another American from New Mexico. We were 14 at dinner and the Gite people put on a nice dinner on their outside terrace. My room was huge and had a shower and sink, but oddly the toilet was a long way down the hall. Anyway, ok nights sleep and up just before 7:00am to hit the road before the heat. I suspect that Walk the Camino miscalculated my distances based on the idea that the Gite was in town not 4km before the town. This made today insanely long. Temperatures started out reasonably, but by noon were into the high 80s. When carrying a heavy pack, this makes a big difference. As usual in France and on a Sunday not much in the way of places to stop and eat or get refreshment. There was one Gite that had a self service area, Mille Bornes and it was a life saver. Other than that, the trail today followed a Voie Verte, these are decommissioned railway lines that have been turned into bicycle and walking trails. It makes for easy walking, but lots of pavement.

Got an early start out of Condom today as once again it was forecast to get quite hot after noon. Fairly easy walking through farm fields and rolling hills. As I checked it turned out that my Gite is a little over 4km from the actual town. This is a little annoying since that is at least an hour of walking. When I arrived I ran into Monsieur, who gave me the usual, “we don’t open until 3:00pm” spiel. At which point I explained that I was aware of that but would like to leave my pack and get town for some lunch. He tried a number of taxi companies, who all declined, and luckily the wife was up for driving me to town. After some chatting she dropped me at the best of the two restaurants in town which resulted in a fabulous lunch, Potage, Pate, some Duck and a side plate of mushrooms finished of with tiramisu dessert. The town of Montreal was a fortified town and is now pretty sleepy with a pleasant town square. I ran into a Canadian, Colleen from Toronto and we shared a drink and chat before she headed of to find her Gite. Now, to get back to the place I’m staying hopefully without the hour walk!

Got together with some fellow pilgrims for coffee this morning and then walked a little ways to the edge of town with them, Vincent, Roxane and Laetitia. We’ve been hanging out together at the end of the day for a few days now and I was sad to see them go as we have had a fun time hanging out. After doing a bit of the tourist walk around, I found a sign for an Armangac place and that turned out to be gold. After a private tour of the cellars, a short film and some tasting I was taken over to the chateau to taste a few of the really old things. Turns out the owner is Raj Bhakta from Vermont and his person in charge, Amanda, British, is passionate about Armangac. Got a small taste of a 1904! After a Bun Bowl for lunch it was down for a nap! My Demi-pension puts me at the same restaurant tonight as last night, but it was good. Tomorrow, 17km to Montreal.

Last night in La Romieu was a lot of fun. Hung out in the plaza with some fellow French pilgrims one of whom turned out to be tango dancer. We took turns drinking Rose with ice, and dancing and eating things from the nearby epicerie. Then back to the Cles des Champs gite where Madame had been cooking, duck fat potatoes, roast chicken and a salad followed by Flan. One of her friends who runs a limousine company in Paris came by, and Tony and Judy, Aussies from Brisbane were also in the house. Apparently she was double booked, I found out later I had her room, a little tricky for a tall person up under the roof with exposed beams. Somehow I managed not to crack my head during the night, but just about the only places I could stand up were under the skylights. No matter, she was absolutely charming and it was sort like staying with an eccentric French relative. Out the door before 9:00am this morning with Condom, the capital of the Armangac area as a destination. I was told it was 13km but now that I look at the guide it says 16km, more likely. Beautiful walk through fields etc. and finally some vineyards. Condom is quite a decent sized town, even big enough that after finding my hotel, checking in and showering I was able to get lunch!! Normally I only get to watch others eating lunch. An excellent pork with a lovely lemon type sauce. After lunch, a quick stop in the visitor center, and then on to the petite train, a common tourist thing where they tow you around with a train replica to show you the sights, at 8Euro including an Armangac tasting it seems like a good deal and as the only passenger I got the VIP treatment. It is extremely hot here almost 90deg. And in another Frenchism, the air conditioning is turned off for the hotel. Apparently A/C in France is determined by the date not the temperature. This is the country of the 3 musketeers but for some reason there are four in the full size statue near the cathedral.

Found a coffee on the way out of town and then what seemed like a fairly long 17km to the days destination. Lovely fog below the city, then hiking through farm fields. Eventually after an hour, an actual cafe with coffee etc! What a treat. Encountered some French ladies and we walked a bit together. But I continued at my slow pace ahead of them, only to rendezvous for a drink at the plaza in town after I had checked into my BnB. Turns out one is a tango dancer, game on…. It got very hot today, but fortunately arrived in town just after 2:00pm ready to have a shower and call it day. This particular Gite, Cle des Champs, has put me and other guests at the very top of the house with lots of beams. The only place I can stand upright in my room is under the skylight. I predict that I will locate a few of the beams during the night!