Sunday

One of the advantages of living in Bouillon is that it's only one and half hours from both the Basque coast and the Pyrenees.

We decided to go to the coast and spend some time in Saint Jean de Luz, a small fishing port, which has now become a popular resort.

I was told it's the equivalent of the Cote d' Azur without the 'bling'!

The architecture is very distinctive due to the white-walled Basque style buildings which dominate the town.

We arrived at lunchtime and we went to a restaurant near the main square in the picture above.
Not surprisingly, most of the restaurants there specialise in seafood. This was a pleasant change from the duck-laden cuisine I have been accustomed to!

To start with I had piquillos (peppers) stuffed with salt cod.
The saltiness of the cod and the sweetness of the peppers complemented each other perfectly.

Next came pan-fried lemon sole. This was very-well cooked and I could tell that the fish was fresh from the fishing boats outside.

After lunch we went down to the beach to check out the view. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and it was windy and cloudy with hardly any sunlight. Nevertheless, the view was impressive and I could imagine how busy and fine the place would be in the height of summer.

We then proceeded to walk around the town. There seemed to be endless clothes shops and seafood restaurants but it was relatively quiet.

However, in the center of the town, there is a beautiful church, where Louis XIV was married.
The intricate carvings on the wall were very impressive
It started to rain just as we left and we had a quick drive around Biarritz before heading back to Bouillon.